BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER:
BEING
EXTRACTS FROM HIS
CHECKS TO ANTINOMIANISM,
IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO
REV. MR. SHIRLEY AND MR. HILL.
BY REV. T. SPICER, A.M.
NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY G. LANE & P. P. SANDFORD,
FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE,
200 MULBERRY-STREET.
J. Collord, Printer.
1843.
" Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by
T. Mason and G. Lane, in the Clerk's Office of the District
Court of the Southern District of New- York."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Vindication of Mr. Wesley's last Minutes, or,
"Checks to Antinomianism," by the celebrated Mr.
Fletcher, of Madely, Eng., has been very justly regarded
by the Methodist societies, both in Europe and America,
as one of the most excellent works of the kind that has
ever been published in the English language.
This work was first published in London, A.D. 1788,
in six duodecimo volumes, and it has passed through
four editions in America. It has had a very extensive
circulation in this country, and has been read with
great pleasure and profit. Many have thereby been
led from the mazes of a speculative and vain philo-
sophy, and the intricacies of Calvinian subtleties, to a
clear and satisfactory view of the plan of salvation as
exhibited in the Holy Scriptures. And not a few, who,
by means of Calvinism, had renounced the Bible and
become skeptical, have, by reading these "Checks,"
been brought to see a beauty and harmony in the
doctrines contained in this sacred volume, and have
acknowledged its truth. It is a fact too well known to
be denied, that many who have known no other way
to understand the Scriptures than as Calvinism teaches,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
have seen in Calvinian predestination, election, and
reprobation, so many things repugnant to reason and
common sense, that they have chosen, rather than be-
lieve such doctrines, to renounce the book which they
had been taught to believe contained them. Not a few
of these have been induced to read these Checks, which
exhibit a different view of the divine government, and
of the plan of salvation, from that which is exhibited
in Calvinism, and have thereby been led to embrace
Christianity again, as a system the most lovely and
interesting of all the exhibitions of the divine Being.
" What is truth ?" This is a very interesting ques-
tion : there are, however, many persons in the world
like Pilate, who make this important inquiry, but have
not sufficient patience to wait for an answer. If a
book be large, or if a work consist of several volumes,
they cannot endure the thought of perusing the whole
in order to ascertain what is truth. This is the case
of many who are not accustomed to close thinking or
extensive reading. These must be accommodated with
a treatise that is brief and directly to the point, or their
attention is not gained, nor can we win their assent to
truth.
In the works of Mr. Fletcher there are many matters
contained which may be considered rather of a local
character than of general interest. At the time when
they were written they were, doubtless, considered very
interesting to all concerned, but at this distance of time
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 5
and place, few of his readers would feel much interest
in them. A kind of abridgment, which shall contain
a sketch or outline of these matters, and also present an
epitome of the work, will interest, and greatly profit, a
very numerous class of readers.
Again, many readers there are who feel a repugnance
to every thing in the form of controversy, and so great
is their aversion that they cannot be persuaded to read
any work like this of Mr. Fletcher's ; they would, at
least, affect to regard it as a quarrel among ministers
about religion. In order that such may embrace the
truth, it must be presented in a form which to them
may seem less exceptionable than it usually is in
works on controversy.
The above considerations have induced the compiler
of these extracts to undertake the present work. In his
estimation, no man has more closely studied the Holy
Scriptures in connection with their bearing on these
points of doctrine than Mr. Fletcher.
In making these extracts, I have selected such arti-
cles as are deemed most interesting to the greater part
of inquirers after truth at the present day. In some
instances I have gathered the writer's remarks on one
subject from different volumes, and I have united them
in one chapter. And in many cases I have made dis-
tinct chapters under appropriate heads, when they did
not so exist before. My principal object in the selection
and in the arrangement which I have introduced, has
6 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
been to present the reader a very distinct view of the
most important parts of these controversial writings,
consisting of essays and arguments, proofs and illus-
trations of divine truth. Here the inquirer after truth
will find objections answered, difficulties removed, and
explanations of many difficult passages of Holy Scrip-
ture.
On the whole, I cannot but hope that the reader will
receive great benefit from a careful perusal of the work
which is here presented to him.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION, Page 3
An historical sketch of the circumstances which gave rise to, and
were connected with this controversy, - .... 9
CHAPTER I.
On the necessity of works.
SECTION i. Is it necessary that any thing be done by men in order
to justification ?-- 25
SECTION n. An objection answered, ------ 29
CHAPTER II.
On the merit of good works.
SECTION i. The rewardableness of good works illustrated by a
comparison, -----.....31
SECTION n. Calvinistic reasoning respecting reprobation an-
swered, 34
SECTION in. Calvinistic reprobation inconsistent with the perfec-
tions of God, - -.-.....40
An objection against God's wisdom answered, - - - - 44
CHAPTER III.
An answer to several Calvinistic dogmas respecting election, - 44
CHAPTER IV.
On the doctrine of a two-fold justification, ..... 53
CHAPTER V.
Remarks on the state and character of Judas, 00
CHAPTER VI.
Farther remarks on the justification of infants, 69
CHAPTER VII.
The doctrine of a believer's justification by works reconciled with
a sinner's justification by grace, - - - - - - 72
CHAPTER VIII.
Reconciling concessions respecting election and reprobation, 76
CHAPTER IX.
The fictitious and the genuine creed, - 83
CHAPTER X.
A Scriptural essay on the astonishing rewardableness of works
according to the covenant of grace.
SECTION I. A variety of plain scriptures, which show that heaven
itself is the gracious reward of the works of faith, and that be-
lievers may lose that reward by bad works, .... 122
SECTION II. An answer to the most plausible objections of the
Solifidians against this doctrine, ...... 135
SECTION in. Some reflections upon the unreasonableness of those
who scorn to work with an eye to the reward which God offers
to excite us to obedience, -.-..... 156
8 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER XI.
An essay on truth. Introduction, - - '. ~ . ** a S e 171
SECTION I. A plain definition of saving faith, how believing is the
gift of God, and whether it is in our power to believe, -
SECTION II. Saving truth is the object of saving faith : what truth
is, and what great things are spoken of it. Our salvation turns
upon it, 183
CHAPTER XII.
The Scripture scales.
SECTION I. Three pairs of gospel axioms, -
SECTION ii. The glory of faith, and the honour of work*,
SECTION in. What is God's work, and what is our own, -
CHAPTER XIII.
A rational and Scriptural view of St. Paul's meaning in the ninth
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, .... - 207
CHAPTER XIV.
The absurdity of supposing that there can be any free wrath in a
just and good God, 236
CHAPTER XV.
Mr. Toplady's Christian and philosophical necessity considered, - 240
CHAPTER XVI.
Absurd consequences attached to error.
SECTION I. The elect shall be saved, do what they will, and others
will be damned, do what they can,
SECTION II. Mr. Toplady's inquiries answered, - 249
CHAPTER XVII.
A rational account of the origin of evil,
CHAPTER XVIII.
Difficulties removed.
SECTION I. Remarks on 1 Samuel ii, 25,
SECTION n. Explanation of Acts iv, 27, 28, ....
CHAPTER XIX.
A caution against the tenet that Whatever is, is right, -
CHAPTER XX.
A middle way between Calvinian providence and chance, - - 268
CHAPTER XXI.
Christian perfection. Advertisement, -
SECTION i. The doctrine of Christian perfection stated, <o
SECTION n. Is Christian perfection a sinless perfection ? - -
SECTION in. Several plausible objections to Christian perfection
answered, - - - - ~ -
SECTION iv. The absurdity of saying that all our perfection is in
Christ, 2 s4
CHAPTER XXII.
Objections taken from Holy Scripture answered.
SECTION I. Exposition of 1 Kings viii, 46,
SECTION n. Exposition of Eccles. vii, 20, -
SECTION in. Exposition of Gal. v, 17, ....
SECTION iv. Exposition of Rom. vii, 14, - - - - ***
SECTION v. Exposition of 2 Cor. xii, 7,
SECTION vi. Exposition of 1 John i, 8,
CHAPTER XXIII. .
The mischievousness of the doctrine of Christian imperfection,
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH GAVE RISE TO, AND WERE
CONNECTED WITH, THIS CONTROVERSY.
IN the latter part of the year 1739, several persons,
who were deeply awakened to see their need of salva-
tion, came to the Rev. John Wesley in London, de-
siring that he would spend some time with them in
prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to
come. That he might have more time for this great
work, he appointed a day in which they might all come
together, which from thenceforth they did every week.
Such inquirers becoming quite numerous, he formed
them into classes, and gave them such advice from
time to time as he judged most needful for them.
Similar classes or societies were soon formed in various
parts of England, voluntarily putting themselves under
the pastoral care of Mr. Wesley ; and from among them
the Lord soon raised up individuals to assist Mr. Wesley
in this great work. Several of these he licensed as
preachers, and they became his regular helpers in pro-
moting this blessed revival of pure religion throughout
Great Britain. These preachers used to meet Mr. Wes-
ley in conference once a year, and sometimes oftener,
to confer on the most suitable means to promote this
great work which God had commenced ; and to receive
from Mr. Wesley their appointments to their respective
fields of labour.
10 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
In the year 1770 their conference was held in the
city of London ; and from the Minutes of their con-
versation the following extracts were published :
" Take heed to your doctrine."
<c We said in 1744, ' We have leaned too much to-
ward Calvinism.' Wherein ?
" 1. With regard to maris faithfulness. Our Lord
himself taught to use the expression, and we ought
never to be ashamed of it. We ought steadily to as-
sert on his authority, that if a man is not faithful in
the unrighteous mammon, God will not give him
the true riches.
11 2. With regard to working- for life, this also our
Lord has expressly commanded us. Labour, kpya&cde,
literally, work, for the meat that endureth unto ever-
lasting life. And, in fact, every believer, till he comes
to glory, works for as well as from life.
" 3. We have received it as a maxim, that ' a man
is to do nothing in order to justification ;' nothing can
be more false. Whoever desires to find favour with
God should cease from evil, and learn to do well.
Whoever repents, should do works meet for repent-
ance. And if this is not in order to find favour, what
does he do them for ?
" Review the whole affair.
" 1. Who of us is now accepted of God ? He that
now believes in Christ with a loving, obedient heart.
" 2. But who among those who never heard of
Christ? He that feareth God and worketh righteous-
ness according to the light he has.
" 3. Is this the same with, ' He that is sincere ?'
Nearly, if not quite.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. H
'' 4. Is not this salvation by works ? Not by the
merit of works, but by works as a condition.
" 5. What, then, have we been disputing about for
these thirty years ? I am afraid, about words.
" 6. As to merit itself, of which we have been so
dreadfully afraid : We are rewarded according to our
works, yea, because of our works. How does this
differ from, for the sake of our ivorks ? And how
differs this from secundum merita operum ? As our
works deserve ? Can you split this hair? I doubt, I
cannot.
" 7. The grand objections to one of the preceding
propositions are drawn from matter of fact. God does,
in fact, justify those who, by their own confession, nei-
ther feared God nor wrought righteousness. Is this an
exception to the general rule ? It is a doubt, God makes
any exception at all. But how are we sure that the
person in question never did fear God and work right-
eousness? His own saying so is no proof: for we know
how all that are convinced of sin undervalue them-
selves in every thing.
" 8. Does not talking of a justified or sanctified state
tend to mislead men ? Almost naturally leading them
to trust in what was done in one moment? Whereas
we are every hour and every moment pleasing or dis-
pleasing to God, according- to our works,. according
to the whole of our inward tempers and our outward
behaviour."
The publication of the above extracts from the Min-
utes gave great offence to the enemies of Mr. Wesley,
and also to several clergymen. Among these was the
Honourable and Reverend Walter Shirley. This gen-
tleman addressed a printed circular to several persons,
12 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
both clergy and laity, inviting them to meet at Bristol
at the time of Mr. Wesley's next conference, which was
to be held at that place, and to go in a body to said
conference and insist on a formal recantation of the
said Minutes ; and in case of a refusal, that they sign
and publish their protest against them. This circular
denounced these Minutes as injurious to the very fun-
damental principles of Christianity, and as dreadful
heresy.
Mr. Shirley desired those gentlemen whose conve-
nience it might not suit to be present, to transmit their
sentiments on the subject to such person as they should
think proper to produce them. One of these circulars
was sent to Rev. Mr. Fletcher, vicar of Madely, one of
the most holy and devoted men in the nation. By
means of this circular his attention was turned to these
obnoxious Minutes; and on carefully comparing the
doctrines which they contained with the Holy Scrip-
tures, and the Articles and Homilies of the Church of
England, he could not discover that " dreadful heresy"
mentioned by Mr. Shirley ; nor could he perceive any
thing in them injurious to the "fundamental prin-
ciples" of Christianity. Instead, therefore, of uniting
with Mr. Shirley and " other Christian friends, clergy
and laity, as well of the dissenters as of the established
Church," as had been proposed, he addressed a series
of letters to Mr. Shirley, to be laid before the " principal
persons, both clergy and laity," whom he had invited
from all parts of England and Wales.
In these letters Mr. Fletcher undertakes three things.
viz.
I. To give a general view of the doctrines which
Mr. Wesley believed and preached :
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 13
II. An account of the commendable design of the
Minutes: and,
III. A vindication of the propositions which they
contain.
In giving a general view of Mr. Wesley's doctrines,
he remarks, that he had frequently heard Mr. Wesley
preach in his chapels, and sometimes in his own church ;
that he had familiarly conversed with him, often cor-
responded with him, and had perused his numerous
works in verse and prose, and knew that he had, for
these sixteen years past, steadily maintained the fall of
man in Adam, and his utter inability to recover him-
self; that the deepest expressions that ever struck his
ears on the melancholy subject of natural depravity and
helplessness, are those which dropped from Mr. Wesley ;
and that Mr. Wesley was in the habit of pointing out
Christ as the only way of salvation, and faith as the
only way of receiving him, and the benefits of his
righteousness and meritorious death.
Mr. Fletcher remarks, that the next fundamental
doctrine of Christianity is that of holiness of heart and
life ; and insists that no one could accuse Mr. Wesley
of leaning to the Antinomian delusion, which makes
void the law through a speculative and barren faith.
On this subject he shows wherein Mr. Wesley agrees
with the Holy Scriptures. He shows also that Mr. Wes-
ley holds the doctrine of general redemption in a Scrip-
tural manner: and that in these views he perfectly
agrees with the doctrine of the established Church,
which declares that Christ redeemed all mankind, and
that he made upon the cross a full, perfect, and suffi-
cient sacrifice^ oblation, and satisfaction for the sins
of the whole world. And that Mr. Wesley, in his
14 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
preaching, never loses sight of these two gospel axioms,
viz., that all our salvation is of God in Christ, and
therefore of grace, all opportunities, invitations, in-
clinations, and power to believe, being bestowed upon
us by mere grace. And that all our damnation is of
ourselves, by out obstinate unbelief, and our avoidable
unfaithfulness, or incorrigible impenitence.
After having distinctly stated the doctrines to which
Mr. Wesley had subscribed as a minister of the Church
of England, and which he was in the constant habit
of promulgating both in public and private, Mr.
Fletcher proceeds to show the commendable design of
the Minutes, and to vindicate the propositions which
they contain.
Respecting the Minutes, Mr. Fletcher remarks, that
such was the force of prejudice and attachments to par-
ticular modes of expression, that at first they appeared
to him very unguarded, if not altogether erroneous ; but
when the din of severe epithets bestowed upon them by
some of his warm friends was out of his ears when
he had prayed to the Father of lights for meekness of
wisdom, and had given place to calm reflection he
saw them in quite a different light. When he consi-
dered the circumstances in which Mr. Wesley and the
preachers in connection with him were placed, he could
not help seeing that it was necessary to guard them
and their hearers against Antinomian principles and
practices, which spread like wildfire in some of his so-
cieties. There were many who spoke in the most glo-
rious manner of Christ and their interest in his com-
plete salvation, and at the same time were living in the
grossest immoralities, or indulging the most unchristian
tempers.
'
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 15
Under these circumstances Mr. Wesley cries out
''' Take heed to your doctrine." As if he had said,
" Avoid all extremes : while, on the one hand, you keep
clear from Pharisaic delusion that slights Christ, see
that, on the other hand, you do not run into the Anti-
nomian error, which, under pretence of exalting Christ,
speaks contemptibly of obedience, and makes ' void the
law' through a faith which does not 'work by love.'"
Mr. Fletcher clearly shows that it was Mr. Wesley's
design, in these Minutes, to guard his preachers, and
the numerous societies under his care, against " lean-
ing- too much to Calvinism" on the one hand, and too
much to Pharisaism on the other : and for this purpose
advises them to " review the whole affair." In doing
this he establishes four things, viz.: that those only
who are under the gospel dispensation are accepted of
God, who now believe in Christ with a loving, obedient
heart that among those who never heard of Christ,
they that fear God and work righteousness according
to the light they have are also accepted and saved
that this salvation is not by the merit of works, but by
works only as a condition and that in these points of
doctrine Mr. Wesley is perfectly consistent with him-
self.
The Vindication of these Minutes consisted of Jive
letters, addressed, as we have said, to the Hon. and
Rev. Mr. Shirley. Whether they exerted any influence
on Mr. Shirley and his friends in relation to their con-
duct at the meeting of Mr. Wesley's next conference,
we cannot say ; but it is certainly due to Mr. Shirley to
say, that on that occasion his conduct was much like
a minister of the Prince of peace. At the conference
there were such explanations made as to prevent any
16 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
" formal protest," or insisting on a " formal recantation"
of the Minutes.
Mr. Fletcher was prevailed on to furnish a copy of
these letters for publication. To their publication Mr.
Shirley was quite opposed : and by some of his friends
it was represented as an act of injustice, inasmuch as
Mr. Shirley's subsequent conduct was so highly credit-
able to him in the matter above alluded to. Mr.
Fletcher addressed a letter to Mr. Shirley, in which he
acknowledged his pleasure at the results of the confer-
ence, and expressed his willingness that the publication
of his letters should be suppressed ; but remarked that,
whether his letters were suppressed or not, he thought
the doctrines contained in the Minutes must be vindi-
cated that Mr. Wesley owed it to the Church, to all
real Protestants, to all his societies, and to his own
aspersed character. Indeed, such was the modesty of
Mr. Fletcher, and such his love of peace, that he wrote
to the gentleman concerned in the publication of his
letters, that if he would stop it, he would take the whole
expense of the publication on himself, though it should
oblige him to sell his last shirt to defray it. But Mr.
Fletcher's friends, and the friends of those doctrines
they so ably vindicated, prized these letters too highly
to allow them to be suppressed. They were well aware
that these letters would be eminently useful in stemming
the tide of error, and in establishing the truth.
In reply to these letters Mr., Shirley published a
" Narrative." This gave occasion to Mr. Fletcher once
more to take up his pen. He published a " Second
Check to Antinomianism," in three letters, addressed to
the honourable and reverend author of the " Narrative."
He makes no complaint of any severity used in the
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 17
"Narrative," but acknowledges that, considering the
sharpness of his fifth letter, the "Narrative" was kinder
than he had reason to expect. But he complained that
the author had wronged Mr. Wesley and the fifty-three
preachers united with him in conference, by insinu-
ating, if not directly asserting, that they had given up
the doctrine of justification by works in the day of
judgment. Mr. Fletcher insists on it, that so many
judicious and good men could never so betray the cause
of practical religion as tamely to renounce a truth of so
great importance. After showing distinctly what is
meant by those who hold to justification by works in
the day of judgment, viz., by works as an evidence, he
proceeds to maintain this doctrine by a great variety of
passages found in the sayings of our Lord and other
inspired teachers. His arguments are classed under
five distinct heads ; and he notices and answers no less
than ten objections which are usually raised against
this doctrine.
It appears that Mr. Shirley had, some time before,
published a volume of sermons, from which Mr. Fletcher
had made large quotations in support of the doc-
trines contained in the Minutes. Mr. Shirley, in order
to get rid of the arguments drawn from this source,
had, in the " Narrative," made a public recantation of
the sermons. In Mr. Fletcher's second letter of this
new series, he expostulates with him for renouncing so
many truths as were contained in those sermons. He
compares Mr. Shirley with the Dutch, in their last ef-
forts to balance the victory and secure the field. When
they were pressed by the French, rather than yield,
they break their dikes, let in the sea upon themselves,
and lay all their fine gardens and rich pastures under
18 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
water. Mr. Fletcher expresses great regret that Mr.
Shirley had not been as prudent as they, who, before
laying their country waste, saved all their valuable goods
which they could. He also notices a number of mis-
statements made in the " Narrative" by this honourable
and reverend gentleman in reference to the " Vindica-
tion." He closes this letter by assuring Mr. Shirley of
his dislike to controversy. " I no more like it," says he,
" than I do applying a caustic on the back of my friends ;
it is disagreeable to me, and painful to them ; neverthe-
less it must be done when their health and mine is at
stake."
To this SECOND CHECK Mr. Shirley made no reply;
but Richard Hill, Esq., seconded the opposition which
Mr. Shirley had raised against Mr. Wesley's Minutes.
This gentleman appears to have possessed talents equal
to Mr. Shirley, but he did not possess as amiable a dis-
position. He published five letters, addressed to Mr.
Fletcher, entitled, "PIETAS OXIENSIS, or, Oxford
Piety? To these Mr. Fletcher replied in a letter ad-
dressed to the honourable author. As these letters
were written from a concern for "mourning back-
sliders? so the answer originated from a fear lest Dr.
Crisp's balm should be applied to such instead of the
balm of Gilead.
Mr. Hill does Mr. Wesley the justice to acknowledge
that " man's faithfulness" is an expression which may
be used in a sober gospel sense; and Mr. Fletcher
shows that this is the sense in which Mr. Wesley and
all sober men wish to use it. Mr. Hill not only attacks
Mr. Wesley's Minutes, but also the Yindication : it
therefore became necessary for Mr. Fletcher to defend
the Vindication. To the numerous objections brought
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 19
by Mr. Hill against the doctrines here vindicated, and
the many arguments he had introduced in favour of
the peculiar dogmas of Calvinism, Mr. Fletcher answers
in a very masterly manner. He follows Mr. Hill
through all his refined subtleties of reasoning and sar-
castic sneers with which his letters abound, in a manner
which does great credit to his head and his heart.
In reply to this letter of Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Hill pub-
lished six letters addressed to Mr. Fletcher. These let-
ters gave occasion to Mr. Fletcher's THIRD CHECK to
Antinomianism. He compares these letters to a storm
of hail pouring down from the lowering sky, ushered
by some harmless flashes of lightning, and accompa-
nied by the rumbling of distant thunder.
About the same time Mr. Rowland Hill, fellow of
Clare-Hall, Cambridge, came to the aid of his honour-
able brother. He published a " Review of Mr. Fletcher's
Vindication," in what he called " Friendly Remarks."
To these gentlemen Mr. Fletcher addressed thirteen
letters, entitled LOGICA GENEVENSIS, i. e., Geneva
Logic, or FOURTH CHECK to Antinomianism.
To this Fourth Check, Mr. Richard Hill, Esq., replied
in a work entitled "THE FINISHING STROKE." In
this he attempts to screen his mistakes, by presenting a
wrong view of the controversy, and endeavours to show
that his scheme differs from Antinomianism. About
the same time, Rev. Mr. Berriage published a work
designed to attack sincere obedience, and justification
by works and not by faith only. These publications
gave rise to the FIFTH CHECK to Antinomianism, a
work equal in character to either of the preceding which
had dropped from the pen of Mr. Fletcher.
Although Mr. Hill had given the finishing stroke,"
20 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
as he supposed, to the doctrines of Arminianism and
its vindicator, he found his antagonist yet in the field,
having so skilfully warded off the " stroke," that the
doctrines of Arminianism were gaining ground in pub-
lic opinion. He therefore thought proper to take up his
pen once more, and addressed three letters to Mr. Fletch-
er, to which was appended a creed for Arminians and
Perfectionists, which he introduces in these words : " The
following confession of faith, however shocking, not to
say blasphemous, it may appear to the humble Chris-
tian, must inevitably be adopted by every Arminian
and Perfectionist whatsoever." This fictitious creed,
consisting of ten articles, received an answer from Mr.
Fletcher, in which he showed that neither of these ar-
ticles need to be believed by Mr. Wesley, Mr. Sellon, or
himself, whose initials the writer had subjoined, nor by
any others who believed in the doctrines of the Min-
utes, or their Yindication. To this fictitious creed he
opposes a genuine creed for those who believed that
Christ tasted death for every man. And this creed he
supports by the Holy Scripture.
It seemed to be the design of Mr. Fletcher's oppo-
nents to fasten consequences on the doctrines contained
in the Vindication which are calculated to undermine
the doctrines of the Bible. They insist that Arminian-
ism leads to Pharisaism. To this charge, on which
they so constantly insisted, Mr. Fletcher published a
work entitled, " An Equal Check to Pharisaism and
Antinomianism." This consisted of an historical essay
on the danger of parting faith and works, a Scrip-
tural essay on the astonishing rewardableness of works
according to the covenant of grace, a rational vindi-
cation of the doctrine of sa.Vation by faith, and a
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 21
dedicatory epistle to the right honourable, the Countess
of Huntingdon.
After the publication of the Equal Check, Mr. Hill
found it necessary to give a " Second Finishing Stroke,"
to which he appends " reasons for declining any farther
controversy respecting Mr. Wesley's principles." He
quits the field like a brave Parthian. He shoots his
own arrows as he retires, and borrows those of two gen-
tlemen whom he calls, " a very eminent minister of the
Church of England," and " a lay gentleman of great
learning and abilities." In this work he does little else
than repeat the same things he had said in his former
work. He treats Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Olivers with
great contempt. He notifies Mr. Fletcher, that he
would not in future look into any of his books if he
should write a thousand. And as to Mr. Thomas
Olivers, who certainly was a writer of no mean talents,
" I shall not," says he, " take the least notice of him,
or read a line of his composition, any more than if I
were travelling on the road, I should stop to lash, el-
even order my footman to lash, every impertinent little
quadruped in a village that should come out and bark
at me." This specimen will serve to show the spirit
of some of Mr. Fletcher's opponents.
In reply to this Second Finishing Stroke, and the let-
ters accompanying it, Mr. Fletcher wrote his ZELOTES
and HONESTUS reconciled, or the second part to an
Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism, being
the first part of the Scripture Scales. This is a most
admirable work, well calculated to throw light on the
plan of salvation, and to assist in understanding many
dark and difficult passages of Holy Scripture. His
scales are well calculated to weigh the gold of gospel
22 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
truth. In them he balances a multitude of opposite
scriptures, and thereby unites FREE GRACE in God,
and FREE WILL in man.
After this reply, Mr. Hill was as good as his word, for
it appears that he published nothing more on the sub-
ject. But he had scarcely quit the field of controversy,
when another warrior, clad in armour, thought proper
to make his appearance in defence of the peculiarities
of Calvinism. This was Rev. Mr. Toplady. He pub-
lished his " Scheme of Christian Philosophical Neces-
sity, asserted in Opposition to Mr. Wesley's Tracts on
that Subject," and his " Vindication of the Decrees."
The spirit with which this reverend gentlemen wrote
did not reflect much honour on him, either as a Chris-
tian or a gentleman.
To this work Mr. Fletcher wrote a reply, in which
he shows that Mr. Toplady's scheme represents God
as the cause of all sin and damnation. Against this
scheme he brings forward fourteen arguments ; and
in a very clear manner he answers the capital objections
of the necessitarians to the doctrine of liberty. His
answer to Mr. Toplady's " Vindicatian of the Decrees"
will richly repay the reader, if he be an inquirer after
truth. He cannot fail to be edified.
This reply to the principal arguments by which the
Calvinists and fatalists support the doctrine of " abso-
lute necessity" silenced these reverend and honourable
gentleman. It was a " finishing stroke" to them. Mr.
Fletcher, however, added to his numerous publications,
the " Last Check to Antinomianism." This is " A po-
lemical Essay on the twin Doctrines of Christian Im-
perfection and a death Purgatory." In this essay he
vindicates the doctrine of Christian perfection, or evan-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 23
gelical holiness. In his preface he says, When a late
fellow of Clare-Hall, Cambridge, attacked the doctrine
of sincere obedience, which I defend in the Checks
he said with great truth, < Sincere obedience, as a con-
dition, will lead you unavoidably up to PERFECT obe-
dience. 1 What he urged as an argument against our
views of the gospel, is one of the reasons by which we
defend them, and perhaps the strongest of all ; for our
doctrine leads as naturally to holiness and perfect obe-
dience, as that of our opponents does to sin and imper-
fection."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE NECESSITY OF WORKS.
SECTION I.
IS IT NECESSARY THAT ANY THING BE DONE BY MEN IN
ORDER TO JUSTIFICATION ?
MR. WESLEY said, in the Minutes alluded to, " We
have received it as a maxim, that a man is to do no-
thing ' in order to justification.' Nothing can be more
false. Whoever desires to find favour with God, should
cease from evil and learn to do well. Whoever re-
pents, should do works meet for repentance. And if
this be not in order to find favour, what does he do
them for T
By justification he does not mean that general be-
nevolence of our merciful God, manifested in the atone-
ment ; this is certainly previous to any thing we can
do to find it. Much less does he mean what Dr. Crisp
calls eternal justification. But the justification of
which he speaks, is either that public and final justifi-
cation which our Lord mentions in the gospel, when
he says, " By thy words thou shalt be justified," allu-
ding to the day of judgment : or he means the forgive-
ness of sin, and the witness of it. This is what Mr.
Wesley and St. Paul generally mean by justification.
And now, do not Scripture, common sense, and ex-
perience, show that something must be done in order
2
26 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
to attain and find, though not to merit and purchase
this justification 1
1. Please to answer the following questions, founded
upon the express declarations of God's word. To him
that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the
salvation of God. Is ordering our conversation aright,
doing nothing? Repent ye and be converted, that
your sins may be blotted out. Are repentance and
conversion nothing? Come unto me all ye that are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest, I will justify
you. Is coming doing nothing ? Cease to do evil,
learn to do well. Come now, let us reason together,
and though your sins be red as crimson, they shall
be white as snow, you shall be justified. Is ceasing
to do evil, and learning to do well, doing nothing?
Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him
while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord, who will have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
IB seeking, calling, forsaking one's way, and return-
ing to the Lord, a mere nothing ? Ask, and you shall
receive; seek, and you shall Jind ; knock, and it shall
be opened unto you. Yea, take the kingdom of hea-
ven by force. Is seeking, asking, knocking, and
taking by force, absolutely nothing? When you have
answered these questions, I will throw one or two hun-
dred more of the like kind in your way-
Let us now see if reason is not for Mr. Wesley, as
well as Scripture. Do you not maintain that believing
is necessary in order to our justification ? If you do,
you subscribe to Mr. Wesley's heresy ; for believing is
not only doing something, but necessarily supposes a
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 2V
variety of thing's. Faith cometh by hearing, arid 1
sometimes by reading, which implies attending the mi-
nistry of the word, and searching the Scriptures, as the
Bereans did. It likewise presupposes at least the atten-
tion of the mind, and consent of the heart, to a revealed
truth ; or the consideration, approbation, and receiving
an object proposed to us : nay, it implies renouncing
worldly, and seeking divine honour. What a variety
of things is therefore implied in believing, which we
cannot but acknowledge to be previous to justification !
Who can then blame Mr. Wesley for saying some-
thing' must be done in order to justification?
Again, if nothing be required of us in order to justi-
fication, who can find fault with those that die in a state
of condemnation ? They were born in sin, and chil-
dren of wrath, and nothing was required of them in
order to find favour: it remains, therefore, that they are
damned, through an absolute decree, made thousands
of years before they had any existence ! If some can
swallow this camel with the greatest ease, I doubt, sir,
it will not go down with you, without bearing very
hard upon the knowledge you have of the God of love,
and the gospel of Jesus.
Once more : Mr. Wesley concludes his proposition
with a very pertinent question : "When a man that is
not justified, does works meet for repentance, what
does he do them for ?" Permit me to answer it accord-
ing to Scripture and common sense. If he do them in
order to purchase the divine favour, he is under a self-
righteous delusion ; but if he do them, as Mr. W. says,
in order to find what Christ has purchased for him, he
acts the part of a wise Protestant.
Should you say that such a penitent does works meet
28 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
for repentance from a sense of gratitude for redeeming
love, I answer, This is impossible ; for that love must be
shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given him,
in consequence of his justification, before he can act
from a sense of that love, and the gratitude which it
excites. I hope it is no heresy to maintain that the
cause must go before the effect. I conclude, then, that
those who have not yet found the pardoning love of
God, do works meet for repentance in order to find it.
They abstain from those outward evils which once they
pursued ; they do the outward good which the convinc-
ing Spirit prompts them to ; they use the means of
grace, confess their sins, and ask pardon for them ; in
short, they seek the Lord, encouraged by that promise :
They that seek me early shall find me. And Mr.
W. supposes they seek in order to find. In the name
of candour, where is the harm of that supposition ?
When the poor woman has lost her piece of silver,
she lights a candle, says our Lord, she sweeps the
house and searches diligently till she find it. Mr. W.
asks, If she does not do all this in order to find it,
what does she do it for? At this the alarm is taken,
and the post carries through various provinces printed
letters against old Mordecai, and a synod is called toge-
ther to protest againt the dreadful error.
Having defended Mr. W.'s proposition, from Scripture
and from common sense, that whoever desires to find
favour with God, must cease to do evil, and learn to
do well, permit me also to do it from experience. And
here I might appeal to the most established persons in
Mr. Wesley's societies; but as their testimony may
have little weight with you, I waive it, and appeal to
all the accounts of sound conversions that have been
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 29
published since Calvin's days. Show me one, sir,
wherein it appears that a mourner in Sion found the
above-described justification, without doing some pre-
vious works meet for repentance. If you cannot pro-
duce one such instance, Mr. Wesley's doctrine is sup-
ported by the printed experiences of all the converted
Calvinists, as well as all the believers in his own socie-
ties. Nor am I afraid to appeal even to the experiences
of all your own friends. If any one of these can say,
with a good conscience, that he found the above de-
scribed justification without first stopping in the career
of outward sin, without praying, seeking, and confess-
ing his guilt and misery, I promise to give up the Min-
utes. But if none can make such a declaration, you
must grant, sir, that experience is on Mr. Wesley's side
as much as reason and revelation.
SECTION II.
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED,
If we must do something in order to justification,
farewell free justification ; it is no more of grace but
of works, and consequently of debt.
ANSWER. Nothing can be more absurd than to affirm
that when something is required to be done in order to
receive a favour, the favour loses the name of a free
gift, and directly becomes a debt. Long, too long, per-
sons who have more honesty than wisdom, have been
frightened from the plain path of duty by a phantom
of their own making. O may the snare break at last !
And why should it not break now ? Have not sophisms
been wire-drawn, till they break of themselves in the
SO BEATTTIES 07 FLETCHER.
sight ef attentive spectators ? I say to two beggars, Hold
out your hand; here is an alms for you. The one
complies, and the other refuses. Who in the world will
dare to say that my charity is no more a free gift, be-
cause I bestow it only upon the man that held out his
hand ? Will nothing make it free but my wrenching
his hand open, or forcing my bounty down his throat?
Again : the king says to four rebels, Throw down your
arms ; surrender, and you shall have a place both in
my favour and at court. One of them obeys, and be-
comes a great man ; the others, upon refusal, are caught
and hanged. What sophister will face me down, that
the pardon and place of the former are not freely be-
stowed upon him, because he did something in order to
obtain them ?
Once more: the God of providence says, If you
plough, sow, harrow, fence, and weed your fields, I will
give the increase, and you shall have a crop. Farmers
obey ; and are they to believe that, because they do so
many things toward their harvest, it is not the free gift
of Heaven ? Do not all those who fear God know that
their ground, seed, cattle, strength, yea, and their very
life, are the gifts of God ? Does not this prevent their
claiming a crop as a debt? and make them confess,
that though it was suspended on their ploughing, sowing,
harrowing, &c., it is the unmerited bounty of Heaven ?
Apply this to the present case, and you will see that
our doing something in order to justification does
not in the least hinder it from being a free gift ; be-
cause, whatever we do in order to it, we do it by the
grace of God preventing us, that we may have a good
will, and working with us when we have that good
will ; all being of free, most absolutely free grace,
BEATTTIES OF FLETCHER. 31
through the merits of Christ. And nevertheless, so
sure as the farmer, in the appointed ways of Providence,
shall have no harvest if he do nothing toward it, a
professor in the appointed ways of grace (let him talk
of finished salvation all the year round) shall go with-
out justification and salvation, unless he do something
toward them. " He that goeth forth weeping" says
the psalmist, " bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again with joy. bringing his sheaves with
him" " Be not deceived" says the apostle ; " what-
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And
he only that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit
reap life everlasting," David, therefore, and St. Paul,
must be proved enemies to free grace before Mr. Wesley
can be represented as such, for they both sowed in tears
before they reaped in joy ; their doctrine and experi-
ence went hand in hand together.
CHAPTER II.
ON THE MERIT OF GOOD WORKS.
SECTION I.
HAVING cautioned against the popish abuse of Wes-
ley's doctrine of the excellence of works, and shown the
evangelical 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 harm-
less sense.
The king promises rewards for good pictures to mi-
serable foundlings whom he has charitably brought
up, and graciously admitted into his royal academy of
32 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
painting. Far from being masters of their art, they can
of themselves do nothing but spoil canvass, 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 means 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 you say that the poor foundlings, owing all to his
majesty, and the prince's having freely guided their
hands, themselves merited nothing ; because, 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 it, I assert
it. But if you say the good pictures have no merit, I
beg leave to dissent from thee, and tell thee thou speak-
est as unadvisedly for the king as Job's friends did for
God. For if the pictures have absolutely no merit,
dost thou not 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 per-
formance, 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 acknowledge there is merit where Christ puts it,
and where God rewards it ; they will give honour to
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 33
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 righteousness to their deserved glory, without de-
tracting from the glory of the Lord our righteousness.
I am as much persuaded that the grace of Christ merits
in the works of his members, though they themselves
merit nothing but hell, as I am persuaded that gold in
the ore hath its intrinsic worth, though it is mixed with
dust and dross, which are good for nothing.
Mr. Baxter remarks as follows : "The word merit,
rightly explained, is not amiss. All the fathers of the
primitive church have made use of it without opposition,
to 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 con-
veys the same idea : that which comes nearest to it is
dignity, and suspicious persons will not like it much
better. We have three words in the New Testament
that come very near it, afiof, piodoe, and diKatof, and they
occur pretty frequently there. We render them worthy,
reward, and just ; and the abuse which 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."
34 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
SECTION II.
CALVINISTIG REASONING RESPECTING REPROBATION
ANSWERED.
" If all have sinned in Adam, and the wages of
sin is death, God did the reprobates no wrong when
he condemned them to eternal torments, before they
knew their right hand from their left ; yea, before
the foundation of the world"
ANS. The plausibility of this reasoning, heightened
by voluntary humility, has misled thousands of pious
souls : God give them understanding to weigh the fol-
lowing reflections !
1. If an unconditional, absolute decree of damnation
passed upon the reprobates before the foundation of the
world, it is absurd to account for the justice of such a
decree, by appealing to a sin committed after the founda-
tion of the world.
2. If Adam sinned necessarily according to the secret
will and purpose of God, as you intimate in your
fourth letter, many do not see how he, much more his
posterity, could justly be condemned to eternal torments
for doing an iniquity which God's hand and counsel
determined before to be done.
3. As we sinned only seminally in Adam, if God
had not intended our redemption, his goodness would
have engaged him to destroy us seminally, by crush-
ing the capital offender who contained us all ; so there
would have been a just proportion between the sin and
the punishment; for as we sinned in Adam without
the least consciousness of guilt, so in him we should
have been punished without the least consciousness of
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 35
pain. This observation may be illustrated by an ex-
ample. If I catch a mischievous animal a viper, for
instance I have undoubtedly a right to kill her, and
destroy her dangerous brood, if she is big with young.
But if, instead of despatching her as soon as I can, I
feed her, on purpose to get many broods from her, and
torment to death millions of her offspring, I can hardly
pass for the good man who regards the life of a beast.
Leaving to you the application of this simile, I ask, Do
we honour God when we break the equal beams of his
perfections when we blacken his goodness and mercy,
in order to make his justice and greatness shine with
exorbitant lustre? If " a God all mercy is a God un-
just," may we not say, according to the rule of propor-
tion, that " a God all justice is a God unkind," and can
never be he whose mercy is over all his works ?
4. But the moment we allow that the blessing of the
second Adam is as general as the curse of the first ;
that God sets again life and death before every indi-
vidual ; and that he mercifully restores to all a capacity
of choosing life, yea, and of having it one day more
abundantly than Adam himself had before the fall, we
see his goodness and justice shine with equal radiance,
when he spares guilty Adam to propagate the fallen
race, that they may share the blessings of a better
covenant. For, according to the Adamic law, judg-
ment was by one sin to condemnation ; but the free
gift of the gospel is of many offences to justifica-
tion. For if, through the offence of one, the many
be dead ; much more the grace of God, and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath
abounded unto many.
5. Rational and Scriptural as the preceding observa-
36 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
tions are, we could spare them, and answer your objec-
tion thus : You think God may justly decree that mil-
lions of his unborn creatures shall be vessels of wrath
to all eternity, overflowing with the vengeance due to
Adam's preordained sin ; but you are not nearer the
mark : for, granting that he could do it as a just, good,
and merciful God. yet he cannot do it as the God of faith-
fulness and truth. His word and oath are gone forth
together ; hear both : " What mean ye that ye use
this proverb, l The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children^ teeth are set on edge ?' .4s I live,
saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any
more to use this proverb. The soul that sinneth
[personally] it shall die [eternally;] every one shall
die for his own [avoidable] iniquity. Every man
that eateth sour grapes" when he might have eaten
the sweet, " his teeth shall be justly set on edge: 1
When God has thus made oath of his equity and im-
partiality before mankind, it is rather bold to charge
him with contriving Calvin's election, and setting up
the Protestant great image, before which a considerable
part of the church bows down and worships.
Think not. honoured sir, that I say about free wrath
what I cannot possibly prove, for you help me yourself
to a striking demonstration. I suppose you are still
upon your travels. You come to the borders of a great
empire, and the first thing that strikes you is a man in
an easy carriage going with folded arms to take posses-
sion of an immense estate, freely given him by the king
of the country. As he flies along, you just make out the
motto of the royal chariot, in which he dozes, FREE RE-
WARD. Soon after you meet five of the king's carts,
containing twenty wretches loaded with irons : and the
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 37
motto of every cart is, FREE PUNISHMENT. You
inquire into the meaning of this extraordinary proces-
sion, and the sheriff attending the execution answers :
" Know, curious stranger, that our monarch is absolute,
and to show that sovereignty is the prerogative of his
imperial crown, and that he is no respecter of persons,
he distributes every day free rewards and free pun-
ishments to a certain number of his subjects." "What!
without any regard to merit or demerit, by mere ca-
price ?" " Not altogether so, for he pitches upon the
worst of men, and chief of sinners, and upon such
to choose, for the subjects of his rewards. (Elisha
Coles, page 62.) And that his punishments may do
as much honour to free sovereign wrath as his bounty
does to free sovereign grace, he pitches upon those
that shall be executed before they are born." " What !
have these poor creatures in chains done no harm ?" " O
yes," says the sheriff, " the king contrived that their pa-
rents should let them fall and break their legs, before
they had any knowledge ; when they came to the years
of discretion, he commanded them to run a race with
broken legs, and because they cannot do it, I am going
to see them quartered. Some of them, besides this,
have been obliged to fulfil the king's secret will, and
bring about his purposes ; and they shall be burned in
yonder deep valley, called Tophet, for their trouble."
You are shocked at the sheriff's account, and begin
to expostulate with him against the freeness of the
wrath which burns a man for doing the king's will ;
but all the answer you can get from him is, that which
you give me in your fourth letter, page 23, where, speak-
ing of a poor reprobate, you say, " Such a one is in-
deed accomplishing" the king's, you say, "God's decree,
38 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
but he carries a dreadful mark in his forehead, that
such a decree is, that he shall be punished with ever-
lasting destruction from the presence of the lord" of
the country. You cry out, " God deliver me from the
hand of a monarch who punishes with everlasting
destruction such as accomplish his decree ! And while
the magistrate intimates that your exclamation is a
dreadful mark, if not in your forehead, at least upon
your tongue, that you yourself shall be apprehended
against the next execution, and made a public instance
against the king's free wrath, your blood runs cold, you
bid the postillion turn the horses ; they gallop for life,
and the moment you get out of the dreary land, you
bless God for your narrow escape.
May reason and Scripture draw your soul with equal
speed from the dismal fields of Cole's sovereignty to
the smiling plains of primitive Christianity ! Here you
have God's election, without Calvin's reprobation. Here
Christ chooses the Jews, without rejecting the Gentiles,
and elects Peter, James, and John, to the enjoyment of
peculiar privileges, without reprobating Matthew, Tho-
mas, and Simon. Here nobody is damned for not
doing impossibilities, or for doing what he could not
possibly help. Here all that are saved enjoy rewards
through the merits of Christ, According to the degrees
of evangelical obedience which the Lord enables, not
forces them, to perform. Here free wrath never ap-
peared: all our damnation is of ourselves, when we
neglect such great salvation, by obstinately refusing
to work it out with fear and trembling. But this is
not all : here free grace does not rejoice over stocks,
but over men, who gladly confess that their salvation
is all of God, who for Christ's sake rectifies their free
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 39
agency, helps their infirmities, and works in them both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. And from the
tenor of the Scripture, as well as from the consent of all
nations, and the dictates of conscience, it appears, that
part of God's good pleasure toward man is, that he
shall remain invested with the awful power of choosing
life or death, that his will shall never be forced, and con-
sequently, that overbearing, irresistible grace shall be
banished to the land of Cole's sovereignty, together with
free, absolute, unavoidable wrath.
Now, honoured sir, permit me to ask, Why does this
doctrine alarm good men? Why are those divines
deemed heretics who dare not divest God of his essen-
tial love, Emanuel of his compassionate humanity,
and man of his connatural free agency ? What are
Dominions and Calvin, when weighed in the balance
against Moses and Jesus Christ ? Hear the great pro-
phet of the Jews, / call heaven and earth to record
this day against you, that I have set before you life
and death, blessing and cursing, [heaven and hell,]
therefore choose life that ye may live. And he that
hath ears, not yet absolutely stopped by prejudice, let
him hear what the great prophet of the Christians says
upon the important question: / am come that they
might have life ; all things are now ready;!
would have gathered you, and ye would not. Be-
cause I have called, and ye refused, I will laugh when
your destruction cometh. For that they did not choose
the fear of the Lord, therefore shall they eat, not the
fruit of my decree, or of Adam's sin, but of their
own perverse way: they shall be filled with their own
doings.
Our Calvinian brethren assert, that God binds his
40 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
free grace, and keeps it from visiting millions of sinners
whom they call reprobates. They teach, that man is
not in a state of probation, that his lot is absolutely
cast, a certain little number of souls being immoveably
fixed in God's favour in the midst of all their abomi-
nations ; and a certain vast number under his eternal
wrath, in the midst of their most sincere endeavours to
secure his favour. And their teachers maintain that
the names of the former were written in the book of
life, without any respect to foreseen repentance, faith,
and obedience ; while the names of the latter were put
in the book of death (so I call the decree of reprobation)
merely for the sin of Adam, without any regard to per-
sonal impenitency, unbelief, and disobedience. And
this narrow grace and free wrath they recommend to
the world under the engaging name of free grace.
SECTION III.
CALVINIAN REPROBATION INCONSISTENT WITH THE
PERFECTIONS OF GOD.
1. What becomes of God's goodness if the tokens
of it, which he gives to millions, be only intended to
enhance their ruin, or cast a deceitful veil over his ever-
lasting wrath ? What becomes of his mercy, which is
over all his works, if millions were for ever excluded
from the least interest in it by an absolute decree that
constitutes them vessels of wrath from all eternity ?
What becomes of his justice, if he sentences myriads
upon myriads to everlasting fire because they have not
believed on the name of his only begotten Son, when,
if they had believed that he was (heir Jesus, their Sa-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 41
viour, they would have believed a monstrous lie, and
claimed what they have no more right to than I have
to the crown of England ? What becomes of his vera-
city and the oath he swears, that he willeth not the
death of a sinner, if he never affords most sinners suf-
ficient means of escaping eternal death ? If he sends
his ambassadors to every creature, declaring that all
things are now ready for their salvation, when nothing
but tophet is prepared of old, for the inevitable de-
struction of a vast majority of them ? What becomes
of his holiness, if, in order to condemn the reprobates
with some show of justice, and secure the end of his
decree of reprobation, which is, that "millions shall
absolutely be damned," he absolutely fixes the means
of their damnation, that is, their sins and wickedness ?
What becomes of his wisdom, if he seriously expos-
tulates with souls as dead as corpses, and gravely urges
to repentance and faith persons that can no more repent
and believe than fishes can speak and sing ? What
becomes of his long-suffering, if he waits to have an
opportunity of sending the reprobates into a deeper hell,
and not to give them a longer time to save themselves
from this perverse generation 1 What of his equity,
if there was mercy for Adam and Eve, who personally
breaking the hedge of duty, wantonly rushed out of
Paradise into this howling wilderness; and yet there
is no mercy for millions of their unfortunate children,
who are born in a state of sin and misery, without any
personal choice, and consequently without any person-
al sin? And what becomes of his omniscience, if he
cannot foreknow future contingencies? If to foretel
without a mistake that such a thing shall happen, he
must do it himself? Was not Nero as wise in this
42 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
respect 1 Could he not foretel that Phebe should not
continue a virgin when he was bent upon ravishing
her? That Seneca should not die a natural death,
when he had determined to have him murdered? And
that Crispus should fall into a pit, if he obliged him to
run a race at midnight in a place full of pits? And
what old woman in the kingdom cannot precisely fore-
tel that a silly tale shall be told at such an hour, if she
is resolved to tell it herself, or at any rate to engage a
child to do it for her ?
Again, What becomes of God's loving kindnesses
which have been ever of old toward the children of
men? And what of his impartiality, if most men,
absolutely reprobated for the sin of Adam, are never
placed in a state of personal trial and probation ? Does
not God use them far less kindly than devils, who were
tried every one for himself, and remain in their diaboli-
cal state, because they brought it upon themselves by a
personal choice? Astonishing! that the Son of God
should have been flesh of the flesh, and bone of the
bone of millions of men, whom, upon the Calvinian
scheme, he never indulged so far as he did devils ! What
a hard-hearted relation to myriads of his fellow-men
does Calvin represent our Lord? Suppose Satan had
become our kinsman by incarnation,- and had by that
means got the right of redemption ; would he not
have acted like himself, if he had only left the majority
of them in the depth of the fall, but enhanced their
misery by the sight of his partiality to the little flock
of the elect ?
Once more, What becomes of fair dealing, if God
everywhere represents sin as the dreadful evil which
causes damnation, and yet the most horrid sins work
BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER. 43
for good to some, and, as you intimate, " accomplish
their salvation through Christ ?" And what of honesty,
if the God of truth himself promises that all the fami-
lies of the earth shall be blessed in Christ, when he
has cursed a vast majority of them with a decree of
absolute reprobation, which excludes them from obtain-
ing an interest in him, even from the foundation of the
world?
Nay, what becomes of his sovereignty itself, if it be
torn from the mild and gracious attributes by which it
is tempered? If it be held forth in such a light as
renders it more terrible to millions than the sovereignty
of Nebuchadnezzar, in the plain of Dura, appeared to
Daniel's companions, when the form of his visage
was changed against them, and he decreed that they
should be cast into the burning fiery furnace ; for
they might have saved their bodily lives by bowing to
the golden image, which was a thing in their power ;
but poor reprobates can escape at no rate : the horrible
decree is gone forth ; they must, in spite of their best
endeavours, dwell body and soul with everlasting
burnings.
Let none say that we wrong the Calvinian decree
of reprobation when we call it a horrible decree, for
Calvin himself is honest enough to call it so. " How
comes it to pass," says Calvin, " that so many nations,
together with their infant children, are. by the fall of
Adam, involved in eternal death without remedy, unless
it is because God would have it so ? A horrible decree,
I confess ! Nevertheless, nobody can deny that God
foreknew what would be man's end before he created
him, and that he foreknew it because he had ordered
it by his decree." Calv. Inst., book iii, ch. xxiii, sec. 7,
44 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
t
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED.
" What becomes of God's wisdom, if he gave his
Son to die for all mankind, when he foreknew that
most men would never be benefited by his death ?"
ANS. 1. God foreknew just the contrary; all men,
even those who perish, are benefited by Christ's death ;
for all enjoy through him a day of salvation, and a
thousand blessings, both spiritual and temporal; and
if all do not enjoy heaven for ever, they may thank
God for his gracious offer, and take the blame upon
themselves for their obstinate refusal of it.
2. God, by reinstating all mankind in a state of pro-
bation, for ever shuts the mouths of those who choose
death in the error of their ways, and clears himself of
their blood before men and angels. If he cannot eter-
nally benefit unbelievers, he eternally vindicates his own
adorable perfections. He can say to the most obstinate
of all reprobates, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself:
in me was thy help ; but thou wouldst not come unto
me that thou mightest have life. Thy destruction is
not from my decree, but thine own determination.
CHAPTER III.
AN ANSWER TO SEVERAL CALVINIAN DOGMAS
RESPECTING THE ELECT.
I. "David, notwithstanding his horrible backslidings,
did not lose the character of the man after Gods own
heart."
You will permit me to believe the contrary :
1. Upon the testimony of the Psalmist himself, who
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 45
says, in your favourite Psalm, " Thou hast cast off and
abhorred, thou hast been very wroth with thine anoint-
ed; thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant ;
thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the
ground," Psalm Ixxxix, 38.
2. Where is David called " the man after God's own
heart" while he continued an impenitent adulterer?
How much more guarded is the Scripture than your
letters ? " David did that which was right in the eyes
of the Lord, and turned not aside, save only in the
matter of Uriah," 1 Kings xv, 5. Here you see the
immoral parenthesis of ten months spent in adultery
and murder expressly pointed at, and excepted by the
Holy Ghost.
3. David himself, far from thinking that sin could
never separate between God and a just man who draws
back into wickedness, speaks thus in the last charge
which he gave to Solomon : " And thou, Solomon, my
son, know the God of thy father, and serve him with
a perfect heart. If thou seek him, he will be found
of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off
for ever," 1 Chron. xxviii, 9. Hence it appears that
the God of Solomon's father is very different from the
picture which Dr. Crisp draws of David's God. The
former can be so displeased with an impenitent back-
slider as to cast him off for ever ; while the latter ac-
counts him a pleasant child still.
II. "As soon shall Satan pluck Christ's crown from
his head, as his purchase from his hand."
ANS. Here is a great truth making way for a palpa-
ble error, and a dreadful insinuation.
I. Let us see the great truth. It is, indeed, most
46 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
certain that nobody shall ever be able to pluck Christ's
sheep, that is, penitent believers, who hear his voice and
follow him, (John x, 27,) out of his protecting almighty
hand. But if the minds of those penitent believers
are corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ ; if
they wax wanton against him, turn after Satan, end
in the flesh, and draw back to perdition ; if, growing
fat, and kicking like Jeshurun, they neigh like high
fed horses after their neighbours 1 wives : we demand
proof that they belong to the fold of Christ, and are not
rather goats and wolves in sheep's clothing, who can-
not, without conversion, enter into the kingdom of
heaven.
2. The palpable error is, that none of them for
whom Christ died can be cast away and destroyed ;
that no virgin's lamp can go out; no promising har-
vest be choked with thorns ; no branch of Christ cut
off for unfruitfulness ; no pardon forfeited, and no
name blotted out of God's book; that no salt can
lose its savour, nobody receive the grace of God in
vain, bury his talent, neglect such great salvation,
trifle away a day of visitation, look back after setting
his hand to the plough, and grieve the Spirit until he
is quenched, and strives no more. This error, so con-
ducive to Laodicean ease, is expressly opposed by St.
Peter, who informs us that they deny the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruc-
tion. Christ himself, far from desiring to keep his
lukewarm purchase in his hand, declares that he will
spew them out of his mouth.
3. A dreadful insinuation. While you perpetually
try to comfort a few elect, some of whom, for aught you
l?riow, comfort themselves already with their neigh-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 47
hours' wives, (like David,) yea, and the wives of their
fathers, (like the incestuous Corinthians ;) please tell us
how we shall comfort millions of reprobates, who, for
what you know, try to save themselves from this adul-
terous generation ? Do you not hear how Satan, upon
a supposition of the truth of your doctrine, triumphs
over those unhappy victims of what some call God's
sovereignty? While that old murderer shakes his bloody
hand over the myriads devoted to endless torments,
methinks I hear him say to his fellow-executioners of
divine vengeance, "As soon shall Christ's crown be
plucked from his head as this his free gift from my
hand. Let yonder little flock of the elect commit
adultery and incest without any possibility of missing
heaven. I object no more. See what crowds of repro-
bates may pray, and reform, and strive, without any
possibility of escaping hell. Let those gay elect shout,
Everlasting love ! Eternal justification ! and, Finished
salvation ! I consent ! See, ye friends, see the immense
prey that awaits us, and roar with me beforehand,
Everlasting wrath / Eternal reprobation ! and, Fin~
ished damnation /"
III. " The Lord has promised to make all things
work for good to them that love him ; and if all things,
then their very sins and corruptions are included in
the royal promise"
ANS. If this is the love of God that we keep his
commandments, how will you prove that David loved
God when he left his own wife for that of Uriah ?
Does not our Lord declare that those who will not
forsake husband, wife, children, and all things, for
Christ's sake, are not worthy of him, either as believers
48 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
or lovers ? And are those worthy of him who break his
commandments, and take their neighbours' wives ?
Again ; if St. John, speaking of one who does not
relieve an indigent brother, asks with indignation, How
dwelleth the love of God in HIM ? may not I, with
greater reason, say, " How dwelt the love of God in
DAVID?" who, far from assisting Uriah, murdered his
soul by drunkenness, and his body with the sword!
And if David did not love God, how can you believe
that a promise made to those that love God respected
him in this state of impenitency ?
2. When we extol free grace, and declare that Gotfs
mercy is over ALL his works, you directly answer, that
the word all must be taken in a limited sense: but
when you extol the profitableness of sin, ALL, in ALL
things working for good, must be taken universally,
and include sin and corruption, contrary to the con-
text. I say, contrary to the context ; for, just before,
the apostle declares, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall
die ;" ye shall evidence the truth of Ezekiel's doctrine,
" When the righteous man turneth away from his
righteousness, in his sin that he hath sinned shall he
die;" and at the end of the chapter the things that
work for good are enumerated, and they include all
tribulations, and creatures, but not our own sin, unless
you can prove it to be God's creature, and not the devil's
production.
3. It is nowhere promised that sin shall do us good ;
on the contrary, God constantly represents it as tbe
greatest evil in the world, the root of all other temporal
and eternal evils : and as he makes it the object of his
invariable disapprobation, so, till they repent, he levels
his severest threatenings at sinners without respect of
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 4Q
persons. But the author of Pietas Oxoniensis" has
made a new discovery. Through the glass of Dr.
Crisp he sees that one of the choicest promises in Scrip-
ture respects the commission of sin, of theft and incest,
adultery and murder ! So grossly are threatenings and
promises, punishments and rewards, confounded toge-
ther by this fashionable divinity !
4. I grant that, in some cases, the punishment in-
flicted upon a sinner has been overruled for good ; but
what is this to the sin itself? Is it reasonable to ascribe
to sin the good that may spring from the rod with which
sin is punished? Some robbers have, perhaps, been
brought to repentance by the gallows, and others de-
terred from committing robbery by the terror of their
punishment ; but by what rule in logic or divinity can
we infer from thence, either that any robbers love God,
or that all robberies shall work together for their good ? '
IV. " How has many a poor soul, who has been
faithless through fear of man, even blessed God for
Peter's denial!"
ANS. Surely, sir, you mistake ; none but the fiend
who desired to have Peter that he might sift him
could bless God for the apostle's crime; nor could one,
on such a horrid account, bless any other god but the
god of this world. David said, My eyes run down
with water, because men keep not thy law ; but the
author of "Pietas Oxoniensis" tells us, that "many a
poor soul has blessed God" for the most horrid breaches
of his law ! Weep no more, perfidious apostle : thou hast
cast the net on the right side of the ship ; thy three
curses have procured God multitudes of blessings!
Surely, sir, you cannot mean this ! Many a poor soul
50 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
has blessed God" for granting a pardon to Peter,
but never for Peter's denial It is extremely danger-
ous thus to confound a crime with the pardon granted
to a penitent criminal.
V. " A grievous fall serves to make believers know
their place"
ANS. No, indeed ; it serves only to make them for-
get their place : witness David, who, far from know-
ing his place, wickedly took that of Uriah ; and Eve,
who, by falling into the condemnation of the devil, took
her Maker's place, in her imagination, and esteemed
herself as wise as God.
VI. " A grievous fall drives believers nearer to
Christ."
ANS. Surely you mistake, sir ; you mean nearer to
the devil ; for a fall into pride may drive me nearer
Lucifer, a fall into adultery and murder may drive me
nearer Belial and Moloch; but not nearer to Jesus
Christ.
VII. " A grievous fall makes them more depend-
ant on Christ for strength"
ANS. No such thing. The genuine effect of a fall
into sin is to stupify the conscience and harden the
heart ; witness the state of obstinacy in which God
found Adam, and the state of carnal security in which
Nathan found David, after their crimes.
VIII. " It keeps them more watchful for the
future."
ANS. Just the reverse of this : it prevents their watch-
ing for the future. If David had been more watchful
BEATTTIES OP FLETCHER. 51
by falling into adultery, would he have fallen into
treachery and murder ? If Peter had been more watch-
ful by his first falling into perjury, would he have fallen
three times successively ?
IX. " It will cause believers to sympathize with
others in like situation"
ANS. By no means. A fall into sin will naturally
make us desirous of drawing another into our guilty
condition. Witness the devil and Eve, Eve and Adam,
David and Bathsheba. The royal adulterer was so far
from sympathizing with the man who had unkindly
taken his neighbour's ewe lamb, that he directly swore,
As the Lord liveth, the man that has done this thing
shall surely die.
X. " It will make them sing louder to the praise
of restoring grace throughout all the ages of eter-
nity."
ANS. I demand proof of this. I greatly question
whether Demas, Alexander the coppersmith, Hyme-
neus, Philetus, and many of the fallen believers men-
tioned in the epistles of our Lord to the fallen churches
of Asia, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in those of
St. Peter, St. James, and St. Jude, shall sing restoring
grace at all. The apostle, far from representing them
as singing louder, gives us to understand that many
of them shall be thought worthy of a much sorer
punishment than the sinners consumed by fire from
heaven ; and that there remaineth no more sacrifice
for their sins ; (a sure proof that Christ's sacrifice
availed for them till they accounted the blood of the
covenant an unholy thing;} for, adds the apostle, The
Lord will judge his people, and, notwithstanding all
52 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
that Dr. Crisp says to the contrary, There remaineth
(for apostates) a certain fearful looking for of judg-
ment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the
adversaries. Weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth,
and not "louder songs," await the unprofitable ser-
vant.
But supposing some are renewed to repentance, and
escape out of the snare of the devil; can you imagine
they will be upon the footing of those who, standing
steadfast and immoveable, always abounded in the
work of the Lord ? Shall, then, the labour of these
be in vain in the Lord ? Are not our works to follow
us ? Shall the unprofitable servant, if restored, receive
a crown of life equal to his who, from the time he en-
listed, always fought the good fight, and kept the
faith ? The doctrine you would inculcate bears hard
upon the equity of the divine conduct, and strikes a
fatal blow at the root of all diligence and faithfulness,
so strongly recommended in the oracles of God.
You will be sensible of your error, if you observe that
all the fine things which you tell us of a fall into sin,
belong not to the fall, but to a happy recovery from it,
and my honoured correspondent is as much mistaken,
when he ascribes to sin the effects of repentance and
faith, as if he ascribed to a frost the effects of a thaw,
or to sickness the consequence of a recovery.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 53
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE DOCTRINE OF A TWOFOLD JUSTIFICATION.
I SHALL by the following syllogism demonstrate,
that justification in the day of our conversion, and jus-
tification in the last day, are no more one single act,
than the day of the sinner's conversion, and that of
judgment are one single day.
Two acts, which differ as to time, place, person, wit-
nesses, and circumstances, cannot be one single act;
(the one may be done when the other remains undone.)
But our first justification at conversion thus differs from
our second justification in the great day. Therefore
our first and second justification cannot be one single
act.
The second proposition, which alone is disputable,
may be thus abundantly proved. Our first and second
justification differ: 1. With respect to time; the time
of the one is the hour of conversion ; and the time of
the other, the day of judgment. 2. With respect to
the place ; the place of the former is the earth ; and
the place of the latter is the awful spot where the tri-
bunal of Christ shall be erected. 3. With respect to
the witnesses : the witnesses of the former are the Spirit
of God and our own conscience ; or to speak in Scrip-
ture language, The Spirit bearing witness with our
spirits that we are the children of God : but the wit-
nesses of the latter will be the countless myriads of
men and angels assembled before Christ. 4. With re-
spect to the Justifier : in the former justification, one
54 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
God justifies the circumcision and uncircumcision ;
and in the latter, one Mediator between God and man,
even the man Christ Jesus, will pronounce the sentence,
for the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all
judgment to the Son. 5. With respect to the justi-
fied : in the day of conversion, a penitent sinner is
justified ; in the day of judgment a persevering saint.
6. With respect to the article upon which justification
will turn : although the meritorious cause of both our
justifications is the same, that is, the blood and right-
eousness of Christ, yet the instrumental cause is very
different, by faith we obtain (not purchase) the first,
and by works the second. 7. With respect to the act
of the Justifier: at our conversion God covers and
pardons our sins ; but in the day of judgment, Christ
uncovers and approves our righteousness. And lastly,
with regard to the consequences of both : at the first
justification, we are enlisted by the Friend of sinners
to fight the good fight of faith in the church mili-
tant ; and at the second, we are admitted by the right-
eous Judge to receive a crown of righteousness, and
shine like the sun in the church triumphant.
If righteous Lot had died when he repeated the
crimes of drunkenness and incest, his justification would
have been turned into condemnation, according to St.
Paul's plain rule, If thou be a breaker of the law, thy
circumcision is made uncircumcision : for neither
the holy God, nor any virtuous man, can possibly jus-
tify a sinner upon the evidence of drunkenness and
incest.
If Solomon, doting upon heathenish young women,
and led astray by them into abominable idolatries,
had died before he was brought again to repentance,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 55
he could never have seen the kingdom of God : he
would have perished in his sin : unless Geneva logic
can make it appear, in direct opposition to the word
of God, that the impenitent shall not perish, and that
idolaters shall inherit the kingdom of God, Luke xiii
3 ; 1 Cor. vi, 9.
3. If the incestuous Corinthian had been cut off
while he denied his father's bed, the justification granted
him at his first conversion, far from saving him in the
day of judgment, would have aggravated his condem-
nation, and caused him to be counted worthy of a
much severer punishment than if he had never
known the way of righteousness, never been jus-
tified : unless you can prove that Christ would have
acquitted him upon the horrid evidence of apostacy and
incest, which appears to me as difficult a task as to
prove that Christ and Belial are one and the same
filthy god.
If David and Bathsheba had been run through by
Uriah, as Zimri and Cozbi were by Phineas ; and if
they had died in their flagrant wickedness ; no previous
justification, no Calvinian imputation of righteousness,
would have secured their justification in the last day.
For upon the evidence of adultery and premeditated
murder, they would infallibly have been condemned ;
according to those awful words of our Lord, I come
quickly to EVERY MAN (here is no exception for the
pleasant children) according as his work shall be, not
according as my work has been: Blessed are they
that do his commandments, that they may enter in
through the gates into the city ; for without are dogs,
WHOREMONGERS, and MURDERERS, Rev. xxii, 12, &c.
Should you say, It is provided in the decree of abso-
56 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
lute election, that adulterers who once walked with
God shall not die till they have repented ; 1. I demand
proof that there ever was such a decree. In the second
Pslam, indeed, I read about God's decree respecting
Christ and mankind ; but it is the very reverse of Cal-
vin's decree, for it implies general redemption, and
conditional election. I will declare the decree : thou
art my son; I will give the HEATHEN for thine in-
heritance, and the UTMOST parts of the earth for
thy possession. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and
thou perish from the way.
2. This evasion is founded upon a most absurd pro-
position, which sews pillows to the arms of backsliders
and apostates, by promising them immortality if they
persevere in sin. But setting aside the absurdity of
supposing that old Solomon, for example, might have
kept himself alive till now by assiduously worshipping
Ashtaroth ; or, which is the same, that he might have
put off death by putting off repentance, because he
could not die till he repented, I ask where is this
strange doctrine written ? Certainly not in the Old Tes-
tament ; for God asks there with indignation, When the
righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and
committeth iniquity, SHALL HE LIVE ? No ; in his
sin that he hath sinned SHALL HE DIE, Ezek. xviii,
24. Much less in the New, where Christ protests that
he will spew lukewarm believers out of his mouth,
and that every branch in him which bears not fruit
shall be taken away or cut off; an awful threatening
this, which was executed even upon one of the twelve
apostles ; for our Lord himself says, Those that thou
GAVEST me I have kept, and none of THEM is LOST
BUT Judas, who fell finally, since he died in the very
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 57
act of self-murder, and is particularly called the son of
perdition.
But granting you, that lest Lot, David, and Solomon
should be condemned by works in the day of judgment,
they were to be immortal till they repented and did their
first works ; this very supposition indicates, that till then
they were sons of perdition, according to that solemn
declaration of Truth manifest in the flesh, Except ye
repent, ye shall all perish.
As if you were aware of this difficulty, p. 149, you
have recourse to a noted distinction in Geneva logic,
by which you hope to secure your favourite doctrine, as
well as fond Rachel once secured her favourite tera-
phim. You say, "that though a sinner," (David for
instance, or Solomon,) "be justified in the sight of
God by Christ alone, he is declaratively justified by
works both here and at the day of judgment."
Now, sir, this'necessarily implies, that though David
in Uriah's bed, and Solomon at the shrine of Ashta-
roth, were justified in the sight of God by Christ's chas-
tity and piety imputed to them ; yet before men, and
before the Judge of quick and dead, they are justified
by the evidence of their own chastity and piety. This
distinction, one of the main supports of Calvinism, is
big with absurdities : for if it be just, it follows,
1. That while God says of Solomon, worshipping
the goddess of the Zidonians, He is still a true believer,
he is justified from all things ; Christ says, By his
fruit ye shall know him; he is an impenitent, unjus-
tified idolater ; and St. James, siding with his Master,
says roundly, that Solomon's faith, being now without
works, is a dead, unjustifying faith, by which, as well
as by his bad works, he is condemned already. Now,
3*
58 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
sir, it remains that you should give up Antinomian
Calvinism, or tell us who is grossly mistaken, God or
Christ : for upon your scheme, God says of an impeni-
tent idolater who once believed in him, " He is fully jus-
tified by the perfect law of liberty ;" and Christ says,
" He is fully condemned by the same law !" and reason
dictates that both parts of a full contradiction cannot
be true.
Do not say, that, upon the Calvinian plan, the Fa-
ther and the Son never contradict one another in the
matter of a sinner's justification, by the imputation of
an external righteousness, which constitutes a sinner
righteous while he commits all sorts of crimes ; and if
the Son, on the other hand, condemns a sinner for his
words, much more for the commission of adultery,
idolatry, and murder ; their sentence must be as fre-
quently different as a believer acts or speaks contrary
to the law of liberty. For Christ being the same yes-
terday, to-day, and for ever, cannot justify, he must
condemn now, as well as in the day of judgment, every
man who now acts or speaks wickedly.
Should you attempt to account for the Father's ima-
ginary justification of an impenitent idolater, by bring-
ing in Calvin's decree, and saying that God reckoned
Solomon a converted man at the shrine of Ashtaroth,
because he had absolutely decreed to give him restoring
grace : I reply, supposing such decrees are not imagi-
nary, is it not absurd to say, that God reckons that cold
is heat, and confounds January with July, because he
has decreed that summer shall follow winter ? There-
fore, which way soever you turn, absurdities or,impie-
ties stare you in the face.
2. The unreasonableness of Calvinism will appear
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 59
to you more glaringly still, if you suppose for a mo-
ment that David died in Uriah's bed. For then, accord-
ing to Crisp's justification by imputation of Christ's
chastity, he must have gone straight to heaven ; and
according to our Lord's condemnation, by the evidence
of personal adultery, he must have gone straight to
hell. Thus by the help of Geneva logic, so sure as
the royal adulterer might have died before Nathan
stirred him up to repentance, I can demonstrate, that
David might have been saved and damned, in heaven
and hell at the same time.
3. Your distinction insinuates, that there will be two
days of judgment ; one to try secretly before God, by
imputed sin and imputed righteousness ; arid the other
to try us publicly before men and angels, by personal
sin and personal righteousness a new doctrine this,
which every Christian is bound to reject, not only be-
cause the Scripture is silent about it, but because it fixes
a shocking duplicity of conduct on God ; for it repre-
sents him first, as absolutely saving or damning the
children of men, according to his own capricious impu-
tation of Christ's righteousness, or Adam's sin ; and
then as being desirous of making a show of justice
before men and angels, by pretending to justify or
condemn people according to their works, when, in
fact, he has already justified or condemned them with-
out the least respect to their works ; for say Bishop
Cowper and Mr. Hill, "In the act of justification, good
works have no place :" and indeed how should they, if
free grace and free wrath have unalterably cast the lot
of all before the foundation of the world ! or in other
terms, if finished salvation and finished damnation
have the stamp of God, as well as that of Calvin ?
60 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER V.
REMARKS ON THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF
JUDAS.
LET us first inquire what scriptures were fulfilled
by the perdition of Judas. They are either general or
particular: 1. The general are such as these ; The
turning away of the simple shall SLAY them, Prov.
i, 32. When the righteous man turneth away from
his righteousness, [and who can be a righteous man
without true faith ?] he shall die in his sin. Again :
When I say to the righteous that HE SHALL SURELY
LIVE ; if he trust to his own righteousness, and com-
mit iniquity, HE SHALL DIE FOR IT, Ezek. iii, 20 ;
xxxiii, 13.
2. The particular scriptures fulfilled by the de-
struction of Judas are these : Psalm xli, 9, Mine own
familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who did eat of
my bread, hath lift up his heel against me. These
words are expressly applied to Judas by our Lord him-
self, John xiii, 18 ; and they demonstrate that Judas
was not always a cursed hypocrite, unless Zelotes can
make it appear that our Lord reposed his trust in a
hypocrite, whom he had chosen for his own familiar
friend. Again : Let his days be few, and let an-
other take his office or bishopric. These words are
quoted from Psalm cix, and particularly applied to Judas
by. St. Peter, Acts i, 20. Now, to know whether Judas's
perdition was absolute, flowing from the unconditional
reprobation of God, and not from Judas's foreseen back-
sliding, we need only compare the two psalms wh^ro his
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 61
sin and perdition are described. The one informs us
that, before he lifted up his heel against Christ, he was
Chrisfs own familiar friend, and so sincere that the
Searcher of hearts trusted in him ; and the other psalm
describes the cause of Judas's personal reprobation thus :
Let his days be few, and let another take his office,
&c., BECAUSE THAT [though he once knew how to
tread in the steps of his merciful Lord, who honoured
him with a share in his familiar friendship] HE
REMEMBERED NOT to show mercy, but PERSECUTED
the poor, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him : AS he
delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him :
AS he clothed himself with cursing like as with a
garment, so let it come into his bowels like water,
Psalm cix, 8, 16, &c. Hence it is evident that, if
Judas was LOST agreeably to the Scriptural prediction
of his PERDITION ; and if that very prophecy informs
us that his days were few, BECAUSE HE remembered
not to show mercy, fyc., we horribly wrong God when
we suppose that this means BECAUSE GOD never re-
membered to show any mercy to Judas BECAUSE
God was a graceless God to Iscariot thousands of
years before the infant culprit drew his first breath.
Brethren and fathers, as many as are yet concerned
for our Creator's honour and our Saviour's reputation,
resolutely bear your testimony with David and the
Holy Ghost against this doctrine : so shall Zelotes
blush to charge still the Father of mercies with the
absolute reprobation of Judas, not only in opposition to
all good nature, truth, and equity, but against as plain
a declaration of God as any that can be found in all
the Scriptures : Let his days be few, and let another
62 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
take his office) &c., BECAUSE HE remembered not to
show mercy, but persecuted the poor, that he might
[betray innocent blood, and] even slay the broken in
heart.
To say that God stood in need of Judas's wickedness
to deliver his Son to the Jews, is not less absurd than
impious. God has no need of sinful men. Any boy
that had once heard our Lord preach in the temple,
and seen him go to the garden of Gethsemane, might
have given as proper an information to the high priest,
and been as proper a guide to the mob, as Judas ; espe-
cially as Christ was not less determined to deliver him-
self than the Jews were to apprehend him. With re-
gard to the notion that Judas was a wicked man an
absolute unbeliever a cursed hypocrite, when our Lord
gave him a place in his familiar friendship and raised
him to the dignity of an apostle, is both unscriptural
and scandalous: 1. Unscriptural; for the Scriptures
inform us, that when the Lord immediately proceeds
to an election of that nature, he looketh on the heart,
1 Sam. xvi, 7. Again ; when eleven apostles prayed
that God would overrule the lot w r hich they were about
to cast for a proper person to succeed Judas, they said,
Thou, Lord, knowest the HEARTS OF ALL MEN ;
show which of these two THOU HAST CHOSEN, that
he may take part of the MINISTRY from which
Judas, by TRANSGRESSION, fell, Acts i, 24. Now,
as Judas FELL BY TRANSGRESSION, he was undoubt-
edly raised by righteousness, unless Zelotes can make
it appear that he rose the same way he fell ; and that,
as he fell by a bribe, so he gave some of our Lord's
friends a bribe to get himself nominated to one of the
twelve apostolic bishoprics. But even then, how does
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 63
this ci^ree with our Lord KNOWING THE HEART and
CHOOSING accordingly?
2. This notion is scandalous ; it sets Christ in the
most contemptible light. How will he condemn, in the
great day, men of power in the church, who, for by-
ends, commit the care of souls to the most wicked men ?
How will he even find fault with them, if he set them
the example himself, in passing by all the honest and
good men in Judea, to go and set the apostolic mitre
upon the head of a thief of a wolf in sheep j s cloth-
ing ? In the name of wisdom I ask, Could Christ do
this, and yet remain the GOOD /Shepherd ? How differ-
ent is the account that St. Paul gives of his own elec-
tion to the apostleship : " The glorious gospel of God
was committed to my trust? says he ; " and I thank
Christ, who hath enabled me, FOR THAT HE COUNT-
ED ME FAITHFUL, PUTTING ME into the ministry?
1 Tim. i, 11, 12. Now, if we represent Christ as put-
ting Paul into the ministry, because he counted him
FAITHFUL ; and Judas, because he counted him un-
faithful a thief a traitor a cursed hypocrite; do
we not make Christ a Proteus ? Are his ways equal ?
Has he not two weights? God, I grant, sets some-
times a wicked king over a wicked people, but it is
according to the ordinary course of human affairs, and
in his anger; to chastise a sinful nation with a royal
rod. But what had the unformed Christian church
done to deserve being scourged with the rod of apos-
tolic wickedness? and what course of human affairs
obliged our Lord to fix upon a wicked man in a new
election to a new dignity and, what is most striking,
in an election to which he proceeded without the inter-
position of any/ree agent but HIMSELF?
64 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
O Zelotes, mistake me not ; if I plead the cause of
Judas's sincerity, when he left all to follow Christ, and
when our Lord passed by thousands, immediately to
choose him for his own familiar friend in whom he
trusted for a preacher of his gospel, and an apostle
of his church I do it not so much for Judas's sake
as for the honour of Christ, and the comfort of his
timorous, doubting followers. Alas! if Christ could
show distinguishing favour and familiar friend-
ship to a man on whom he had absolutely set his
black seal of unconditional reprobation to a man
whom, from the beginning of the world, he had, with-
out any provocation, marked for a goat, and for un-
avoidable damnation : if he could converse, eat, drink,
travel, lodge, and pray, for years, with a man to whom
he bore from everlasting, and will bear to all eternity,
a settled ill-will, an immortal hatred where is sin-
cerity? where is the Lamb without blemish? the
Lamb of God, in whose mouth no guile was ever
found ? If Christ be such a SLY DAMNER of one of
his twelve apostles as the doctrines of grace [so called]
represent him to be, who can trust him ? What pro-
fessor, what gospel minister, can assure himself that
Christ has not chosen and called him for purposes as
sinister as those for which it is supposed that Judas
was chosen and called to be Christ's familiar friend ?
Nay, if Christ, barely on account of Adam's sin, left
Judas in the lurch, and even betrayed him into a
deeper hell by a mock call, may he not have done the
same by Zelotes, by me, and by all the professors in
the world ? O ye " doctrines of grace," if you are sweet
as honey, in the mouth of Zelotes, as soon as I have
eaten you, my belly is bitter ; poison corrodes my
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 65
vitals ; I must either part with you, my reason, or my
peace.
To conclude : If God has taken such particular care
to clear himself from the charge of ABSOLUTELY ap-
pointing Judas to be a son of perdition : nay, if Christ
himself asserts that the FATHER GAVE HIM Judas, as
well as the other apostles : and if the HOLY GHOST
declares, by the mouth of David ', that Judas was once
Christ's familiar friend, and, as such, honoured with
his trust and confidence ; is it not evident that the doc-
trine of free wrath, and of any man's (even JUDAS'S)
absolute unconditional reprobation, is as gross an im-
position upon Bible Christians as it is a foul blot upon
all the divine perfections ?
I hope nobody will charge me with blasphemy for
saying that our Lord called Judas with the same sin-
cerity with which he called his other disciples. Heaven
forbid that any Christian should suppose the Lamb of
God called Iscariot to get him into the pit of perdition,
as the fowler does an unhappy bird which he wants to
get into a decoy ! Judas readily answered the call, and
undoubtedly believed in Christ, as well as the rest of
the apostles : for St. John says, " This beginning of
miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and mani-
fested forth his glory, and his disciples [of whom
Judas was one] believed in him," His faith was true,
so far as it went ; for he was one of the little flock to
ivhom it was God's good pleasure to give the king-
dom,, Luke xii, 32. Our Lord pronounced him blessed
with the rest of his disciples, Matt, xiii, 16 ; and con-
ditionally promised him one of the twelve apostolic
crowns in his glory, Matt, xix, 28.
If you say that " he was always a traitor and a
66 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
hypocrite," you run into endless difficulties ; for, 1. You
make Christ countenance, by his example, all bishops
who knowingly ordain wicked men ; all patrons who give
them livings ; and all kings who prefer ungodly men
in the church. 2. You suppose that Christ, who would
not receive an occasional testimony from an evil spirit,
not only sent a devil to preach and baptize in his name,
but, at his return, encouraged him in his horrid dissi-
mulation, by bidding him rejoice that his name was
written in heaven. 3. You believe that the faithful
and true Witness, in whose mouth no guile was ever
found, gave this absurd, hypocritical charge to a goat,
an arch hypocrite, a devil: " Behold, I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves ; but fear not, the
hairs of your head are all numbered. A sparrow
shall not fall to the ground without your Father,
and ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Do not premeditate, it shall be given you what you
shall speak ; for it is not you that speak ; but the
Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you"
When our Lord spoke thus to Judas, he was a sheep,
i. e., he heard Christ's voice and followed him. But,
alas ! he was afterward taken by the bright shining of
silver and gold, as David was by the striking beauty
of Uriah's wife. And when he had admitted the base
temptation, our Lord, with the honesty of a master and
tenderness of a Saviour, said, "Have not I chosen you
twelve, and one of you is a devil ?" He has let the
tempter into his heart. This severe, though indirect
reproof, reclaimed Judas for a time ; as a similar rebuke
checked Peter on another occasion. Nor was it, pro-
bably, till near the end of our Lord's ministry that he
began to be unfaithful in the mammon of unright-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 67
eousness : and even then, Christ kindly warned, with-
out exposing him.
Some, indeed, think our Lord was partial to Peter ;
but I do not see it : for with equal love and faithfulness
he warned all his disciples of their approaching fall, and
mentioned the peculiar circumstances of Judas's and
Peter's apostacy. " Ay, but he prayed for Peter, that
his faith might not fail." And is this a proof that he
never prayed for Judas? That he always excepted
him when he prayed for his disciples; and that he
would have excepted him, if he had been alive when
he interceded for all his murderers? "However, he
looked at Peter, to cover him with penitential shame."
Nay, he did more than this for Judas ; for he pointed
at him, first indirectly, and then directly, to bring him
to a sense of his crime. But, supposing our Lord had
not at all endeavoured to stop him in his dreadful
career, would this have been a proof of his reprobating
partiality ? Is it not said, that the Lord weigheth the
spirits ? As such, did he not see that Judas offended
of malicious wickedness and calm deliberation : and
that Peter would offend merely through fear and sur-
prise ? Supposing, therefore, he had made a difference
between them, would it be right to account for it by
Calvinian election and reprobation, when the difference
might so naturally be accounted for from the different
state of their hearts and nature of their falls ? Was it
not highly agreeable to the notions we have of justice,
and the declarations we read in the Scriptures, that our
Lord should reprobate, or give up Judas, when he saw
him immoveably fixed in his apostacy, and found that
the last hour of his day of grace was now expired ?
From all these circumstances, I hope I may conclude
68 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
that Judas was not always a hypocrite ; that he may
be properly ranked among apostates, that is, among
those who truly far! from God, and therefore were once
truly in him; and that our Lord spoke no untruth
when he called the Spirit of God the Spirit of Judas's
Father, without making any difference between him
and the other disciples.
If you ask how he fell? I reply, that overlooking
an important part of our Lord's pastoral charge to him,
He that endureth unto the end shall be saved, he
dallied with worldly temptations till the evil spirit,
which was gone out of him, entered in again, with
seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and took
possession of his heart, which was once swept from
reigning sin, and garnished with the graces which
adorn the Christian in his infant state. Thus, like
Hymeneus, Philetus, Demas, and other apostates, by
putting- away a good conscience, concerning 1 faith
he made shipwreck, and evidenced the truth of God's
declaration, " When the righteous turneth away from
his righteousness, all his righteousness that he hath
done shall not be mentioned : in his sin that he hath
sinned he shall die"
OBJECTION. "But how could Judas be redeemed
by Christ ? Was not his soul actually in hell, be-
yond the reach of redemption, when Christ bled upon
the cross ?"
ANSWER. The fallacy of this argument will be suffi-
ciently pointed out by retorting it thus : " How could
Christ redeem David ? Was not David's soul actually
in heaven, beyond the need of redemption, when Christ
bled upon the ignominious tree ?" The truth is : From
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 69
the foundation of the world Christ intentionally shed
his blood, to procure a temporary salvation for all
men, and an eternal salvation for them that obey
him, and work out their salvation with fear and
trembling. With respect to David and Judas in the
day of their visitation, through Christ's intended
sacrifice, they had both an accepted time; and while
the one, by penitential faith, SECURED eternal salva-
tion, the other, by obstinate unbelief, TOTALLY FELL
from initial salvation, and, by his own sin, went to
HIS OWN, and not to Adam's place.
CHAPTER VI.
FARTHER REMARKS ON THE JUSTIFICATION OF
INFANTS.
IN the Third Check, to make my readers sensible
that Calvinism has confusion and not Scripture for its
foundation, I made a Scriptural distinction between the
four degrees that constitute a saint's eternal justifica-
tion ; and each of these degrees I called a. justification,
because I thought I could speak as the oracles of God,
without exposing the truth of the gospel to the smiles
of Christian wits.
From Rom. v, 18, I proved the justification of in-
fants: "As by the offence of Adam [says the apostle]
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even
so, by the righteousness of Christ, the free gift came
upon all men to justification of life." In support of
this justification which comes upon all men in their
infancy, I now advance the following arguments :
70 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
1. The Scripture tells us, that Christ in all things
has the pre-eminence : but if Adam be a more public
person, a more general representative of mankind, than
Jesus Christ, it is plain that, in this grand respect, Adam
hath the pre-eminence over Christ. Now, as this can-
not be, as Christ is at least equal to Adam, it follows
that, as Adam brought a general condemnation and
a universal seed of death upon all infants, so Christ
brings upon them a general justification and a uni-
versal seed of life.
2. I never yet saw a Calvinist who denied that
Christ died for Adam. Now, if the Redeemer died for
our first parent, he undoubtedly expiated the original
sin, the first transgression of Adam. And if Adam's
original sin was atoned for and forgiven to him, as the
Calvinists, I think, generally grant, does it not follow
that all infants are by nature children of wrath, yet,
through the redemption of Christ, they are in a state
of favour or justification ? For how could God damn
to all eternity any of Adam's children for a sin which
Christ expiated? a sin which was forgiven almost six
thousand years ago to Adam, who committed it in
person 1
3. The force of this observation would strike our
Calvinist brethren, if they considered that we were not
less in Adam's loins when God gave his Son to Adam
in the grand original gospel promise than when Eve
prevailed on him to eat the forbidden fruit. As all in
him were included in the covenant of perfect obedience
before the fall, so in him all were likewise interested in
the covenant of grace and mercy after the fall : and
we have full as much reason to believe that some of
Adam's children never fell with him from a state of
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 71
probation, according to the old covenant, as to suppose
that some of them never rose with him to a state of
probation upon -the terms of the new covenant, which
stands upon better promises.
Thus, if all received an unspeakable injury by being
seminally in Adam when he fell, according to the first
covenant, we all received also an unspeakable bless-
ing by being in his loins when God spiritually raised
him up, and placed him upon gospel ground. Nay,
the blessing which we have in Christ is far superior to
the curse which Adam entailed upon us. We stand
our trial upon much more advantageous terms than
Adam did in Paradise. For, according to the first cove-
nant, judgment was by ONE offence to condemna-
tion. One sin sunk the transgressor. But according
to the free gift, or second covenant, provision is made
in Christ for repenting of, and rising from, MANY
offences unto justification, Rom. v, 16.
4. Calvinists are now ashamed of consigning infants
to the torments of hell ; they begin to extend their elec-
tion to them all. Even the translator of Zanchius be-
lieves that all children who die in their infancy are
saved.* Now, sir, if all children, or any of them, are
saved, they are unconditionally justified, according to
our plan ; for they cannot be justified by faith, accord-
ing to St. Paul's doctrine, Rom. v, 1 : as it is granted
that those who are not capable of understanding are
not capable of believing. Nor can they be justified by
works, according to St. James's doctrine, chap, ii, 24 :
for they are not accountable for their works who do not
know good from evil, nor their right hand from their
* If all are saved who die in infancy, and Calvinian election be
true, then none but the elect die in infancy !
72 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
left. Nor can they be justified by words, according to
our Lord's doctrine, Matt, xii, 37 : because they cannot
yet form one articulate sound. It follows, then, that all
infants must be damned, or justified without faith,
words, or works, according to our first distinction. But
as you believe they are saved, the first degree of an
adult saint's justification is not less founded upon your
own sentiments than upon reason and Scripture.
CHAPTER VII.
THE DOCTRINE OF A BELIEVER'S JUSTIFICATION BY
WORKS IS RECONCILED WITH THE DOCTRINE OF A
SINNER'S JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE.
HAVING answered the arguments which you have
advanced against the doctrine of justification by works
in the great day, permit me to consider what may far-
ther be advanced against it.
1. We cry to sinners, "By grace shall ye be saved,
through faith, in the day of your conversion ;" but to
believers we say, " By grace shall ye be saved, through
works, in the day of judgment. Turn, therefore, ye
sinners : and, ye saints, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling."
When the apostle excludes works from having any
hand in our justification or salvation, it is only when
he speaks of the justification of sinners, whether we
consider them as infants or adults. For if he excluded
works from the justification of believers, either in the
day of trial or in the day of judgment, he would grossly
contradict himself: but now he is quite consistent.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 73
Mr. Wesley and I, through grace, gladly join him and
Titus when they say, Not by works, of righteousness
which we have done, [either in our infancy or before
the day of our conversion,] but according- to his mercy
he saved us, by the ivashing of regeneration ; that
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life"
Inquire we now, what are those works which St.
Paul opposes to faith and free grace ; and I observe,
1. That it is not absolutely every work, or else he
would oppose faith to itself; for believing is as much a
work of the heart as walking to church is a work of
the feet.
2. Neither does the apostle oppose to faith works meet
for repentance; for he strongly recommended them
himself, Acts xxvi, 20. Nor the works of upright Gen-
tiles that fear God, and believe he is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek him. If St. Paul represented
these works as " dung and filthy rags," he would con-
tradict the angel who said to Cornelius, " Thy prayers
and alms [far from being rejected] are come up for
a memorial before God."
3. Much less did it ever come into the apostle's mind
to oppose the work of faith and labour of love to faith
and free grace ; for they are no more contrary to each
other than the stalk and the ear are contrary to the
root that bears them. Far from despising these works,
see how honourably he speaks of them : " We give
thanks always for you, remembering without ceasing
your work of faith and labour of love in our Lord
Jesus Christ. God is not unrighteous to forget
your work and labour that proceedeth of love. Al-
ways abounding in the work of the Lord. Charge
4
74 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
the rich that they be rich in good works, laying up
for themselves a good foundation, that they may lay
hold on eternal life"
For want of attending to this, some have prepos-
terously opposed the righteousness of faith to personal
holiness. The latter they look upon as the righteous-
ness which is of the law, and which the apostle ex-
plodes, Phil, iii, 9. Thus they suppose that St. Paul
formed the horrid wish of not being found clothed with
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord;
not considering that the pardon of sins and true holi-
ness, the two inseparable fruits of a living faith, consti-
tute the righteousness which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
A righteousness this that far exceeds the outside right-
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, with which
the apostle had too long been satisfied, and which he
so justly despised after his conversion.
But the works which St. Paul excludes are,
1. The works of the ceremonial law of Moses, gene-
rally called the works of the law. On these works
most Jewish converts laid a very great stress ; and some
of them went so far into this error as to say to their
Gentile brethren, "Except ye be circumcised after the
manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved," Acts xv, 1.
Hence the apostle wrote, verse 24, " Certain men, sub-
verting your souls, have troubled you, saying, Ye must
be circumcised, and KEEP THE LAW." Hence, also
it is said, that when St. Paul shaved, and was at
charges to purify himself in the temple, he walked
orderly and KEPT THE LAW, Acts xxi, 24.
2. The apostle likewise opposed to faith those hypo-
critical deeds of the moral law, those external works
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 75
of partial piety and ostentatious mercy by which proud
Pharisees think to atone for their sins and purchase
the kingdom of heaven. Such works of unbelief and
spiritual pride cannot be too much decried. They do
infinite mischief; they draw a veil over our apostacy ;
they breed self-complacence, generate self-conceit, and
feed the opposition of Pharisees against the gospel.
Hence their contempt of Christ, their enmity against
his people, their ridiculing the atonement, despising
others, and boasting of their own goodness. St. Paul
was the more zealous in bearing his testimony against
these fruits of self-righteousness, as he knew, by fatal
experience, that they are the reverse of fruits meet for
repentance, and of the righteousness which is of God
by faith; and that they stood yet in the way of the
Jews as much as they once did in his own.
3. The apostle excludes all the works of impious
moralists, who make no scruple of robbing God be-
cause they are just to man ; all the works of Anti-
nomian believers, who, like the Galatians, pray to the
Lord, and devour their neighbours or, like the Jews,
fast to-day, and to-morrow strike with the fist of wicked-
ness ; all the works which are not ultimately referred
to the glory of God through Jesus Christ ; and all the
works whose gracious rewardableness is not acknow-
ledged to flow from the original and proper merit of the
Redeemer. Those works the apostle justly discards,
as contrary to the doctrine of grace, because they do
not spring from the grace of God, but from the pride
of man. He explodes them as opposite to the righteous-
ness of faith, because they are not the works of humble
faith, but of conceited unbelief; the constant language
of faith being, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
76 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and
truth's sake."
Let the judicious reader say, if by thus distinguish-
ing between the justification of a sinner in the day of
conversion and the justification of a saint in the great
day ; and by making a proper difference between the
works of an humble believer, which the apostle justly
extols, and the works of a proud Pharisee, which he
justly decries; we do not perfectly reconcile him to
himself, and sufficiently secure the honour of free
grace ?
CHAPTER VIII.
RECONCILING CONCESSIONS RESPECTING ELECTION
AND REPROBATION.
SOME readers will probably think that I have made
the Calvinists too many concessions in the following
pages : but I am persuaded that I have granted them
nothing but what they have a Scriptural right to ; and
God forbid that any Protestant should grant them less !
1. We grant that there is an election of distinguish-
ing grace : but we show that this election is not Cal-
vinian election ; thousands being partakers of the par-
tial election of distinguishing grace who have no share
in the impartial election of distributive justice; two
distinct elections these, the confounding of which has
laid the foundation of numberless errors. See Scrip-
ture Scales, sec. xii.
2. We grant the Calvinists that initial salvation is
merely by a decree of divine grace through Jesus Christ.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 77
But we assert that eternal salvation is both by a decree
of divine grace and of distributive justice ; God reward-
ing in Christ with an eternal life of glory those believers
who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for
glory, honour, and immortality.
3. We grant that, although God, as a judge, is no
respecter of persons, yet, as a benefactor, he is, and,
of consequence, has a right to be, so far a respecter of
persons as to bestow his favours in various degrees
upon his creatures ; dealing them to some with a more
sparing hand than he does to others.
4. We grant that, although God punishes no one
with 'eternal death for original and necessary sin,
yet when sin, which might have been avoided by the
help of creating or redeeming grace, has been volun-
tarily and personally committed, God does punish
(and, of consequence, has a right to punish) with eter-
nal death some offenders more quickly than he does
others; his showing, in such a case, mercy and justice
upon gospel terms to whom he pleases, and as soon or
late as he pleases, being undoubtedly the privilege of
his sovereign goodness or justice an awful privilege
this, which is perfectly agreeable to the evangelical law
of liberty, and with which the Calvinists have absurdly
built their twin doctrines of finished salvation and
finished damnation; not considering that such doc-
trines stain the first gospel axiom, and totally destroy
the second.
The nature of this concession may be illustrated by
an example. Two unconverted soldiers march up to
the enerny. Both have avoidably transgressed the
third commandment : the one by calling fifty times
for his damnation, and the other five hundred times.
78 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
Now, both have personally forfeited their initial salva-
tion, and, continuing impenitent, God, as a righteous
avenger of profaneness, may justly suffer (he fifty-pence
debtor to fall in the battle, and be instantly hurried to
the damnation he had madly prayed for ; and, as a
long-suffering, merciful Creator, he may suffer the Jive
hundred pence debtor I mean the soldier who had
sinned with a higher hand to walk out of the field
unhurt, and to be spared for years ; following him still
with new offers of mercy, which the wretch is so happy
as to embrace at last. Here is evidently a higher degree
of the distinguishing grace which was manifested to-
ward Manasseh, as it has also been to many other
grievous sinners. But by this peculiar favour God
violates no promise, and he acts in perfect consistency
with himself: for when two people have personally
forfeited their eternal salvation by one avoidable sin,
of which they do not repent when they might, he does
no injustice to the fifty-pence debtor when he calls him
first to an account ; and he greatly magnifies his long-
suffering when he continues to reprieve the five hun-
dred pence debtor.
By this sparing use of astonishing mercy, God
strongly guards the riches of his grace. This inferior
degree of forbearance makes thoughtful sinners stand
in awe; as not knowing but the first sin they shall
commit will actually fill up the measure of their ini-
quities, and provoke the Almighty to swear in his
righteous anger, that their day of grace is ended. To
justify, therefore, God's conduct toward men in this
respect, we need only observe, that if distinguishing
grace did not make the difference which we grant to
the Calvinists, perverse free-will would draw amazing
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 79
strength from the unwearied patience of free grace.
Suppose, for instance, that God had ensured to all
men a day of grace of fourscore years, would not all
sinners think it time enough to repent at the age of
threescore years and nineteen? Therefore, through the
clouds of darkness which surround us, reason sees far
into the propriety with which distinguishing grace dis-
penses its superior blessings. But all the partiality
which that grace ever displayed never amounted to one
single grain of Calvinian reprobation : because God, as
a righteous judge, lets every man have a fair trial for
his life. Nor will all the sophisms in the world recon-
cile the ideas which the Scriptures and rectified reason
give us of divine justice, with a doctrine which repre-
sents God as condemning to eternal torments a majority
of men for the necessary, unavoidable consequences of
Adam's sin : a sin this, which, upon the scheme of
absolute predestination of all events, was also made
unavoidable and necessary.
5. We grant, that although Christ died to purchase
a day of [initial] salvation for all men, yet he never
died to purchase ETERNAL salvation for any adults
but them that believe, obey, and are faithful unto
death ; and that, of consequence, the redemption of
mankind by Jesus Christ is general and unconditional
with respect to INITIAL salvation, but particular and
conditional with respect to ETERNAL salvation ; except
in the case of infants who die before actual sin. These,
and only these, are blessed with unconditional election
and finished salvation, in the Calvinistic sense of these
phrases : these are irresistibly saved, and eternally ad-
mitted into one of the many mansions of our heavenly
Father's house. Free grace, to the honour of our Lord's
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
meritorious infancy, absolutely saves them, without any
concurrence of their free will. Nor is it surprising that
God should do it unavoidably; for as they never were
personally capable of working WITH free grace, i. e.,
of working- out their salvation, so they never were in
a capacity of working AGAINST free grace, or of begin-
ning to work their damnation. Having never com-
mitted an act of sin, God can, consistently with the
gospel, save them eternally without any act of repent-
ance. In a word, infants having no unrighteousness
but that of the first Adam, reason, as well as Scripture,
dictates that they need no righteousness but that of
the second Adam.
6. From the preceding concession it follows, that
obedient, persevering believers are God's elect, in the
particular and full sense of the word ; being elected to
the reward of eternal life in glory: a reward this,
from which they who die in a state of apostacy or im-
penitency have cut themselves off by not making their
calling and election sure.
7. We grant that none of these peculiar elect shall
ever perish, though they would have perished had they
not been faithful unto death : and we allow that, with
respect to God's foreknowledge and omniscience, their
number is certain. But we steadily assert that, with
regard to the doctrines of general redemption, of God's
covenanted mercy, of man's free agency, of divine
justice, and of a day in which the Lord shall judge
the world in righteousness : we steadily assert, I say,
with regard to these doctrines, the number of the pecu-
liar elect might be greater or less, without the least
exertion of forcible grace or of forcible wrath. For
it might be greater, if more wicked and slothful
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 81
servants improved instead of burying their talents :
and it might be less, if more good and faithful ser-
vants grew faint in their minds, and drew back to
perdition, before they had fought their good fight
out, kept the faith, and finished their course.
8. And lastly, we grant that, according to the elec-
tion of distinguishing grace, which is the basis of the
various dispensations of divine grace toward the children
of men, Christ died to purchase more privileges for the
Christian church than for the Jews, more for the
Jews than for the Gentiles : for it is indubitable that
God, as a sovereign Benefactor, may, without a
shadow of injustice, dispense his favours, spiritual
and temporal, as he pleases : it being enough for
the display of his goodness, and for the exciting of
our gratitude, 1. That the least of his heathen servants
had received a talent, with means, capacities, and op-
portunities of improving it, even to everlasting happi-
ness ; 2. That God never desires to reap a hundred
measures of spiritual wheat, where he only sows a
handful of spiritual barley ; 3. That the least degree
of his improvable goodness is a seed which nothing
but our avoidable unfaithfulness hinders from bringing
forth fruit to eternal life and glory.
By making these guarded concessions, I conceive,
we rectify the mistakes of Arminius ; we secure the
doctrine of grace in all its branches, while Calvinism
secures only irresistible grace, by which infants and
complete idiots are eternally saved ; we turn the edge
and break the point of all the arguments by which the
Calvinian doctrines of grace are defended ; and tear in
pieces the cloak with which the Antinomians cover
their dangerous error.
4*
82 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
Had Arminians, and all the ancient and modern
Semipelagians, granted to their opponents what we
grant to ours, Calvinism would never have risen to its
tremendous height. If you try to stop a great river,
refusing it liberty to flow in the deep channel which
nature has assigned it, you only make it foam, rise,
rage, overflow its banks, and carry devastation far and
near. The only way to make judicious Calvinists the
impartial remuneration election, and the general re-
demption, which the gospel displays, is to allow them,
with a good grace, the partial gratuitous election, and
the particular, which the Scriptures strongly maintain
also. See the Scales, sec. xi, xii. xiii. For my part, I
glory in going as near the Calvinists as I safely can.
Zelotes is my brother as well asHonestus ; and, so long as
I do not lose firm footing upon Scripture ground, I gladly
stretch my right hand to him, and my left hand to his
antagonist ; endeavouring to help them both out of the
opposite ditches, which bound the narrow way where
truth takes a solitary walk.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 83
CHAPTER IX.
THE FICTITIOUS AND THE GENUINE CREED.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED,
BEING A CREED FOR ARMINIANS.
Composed by RICHARD HILL, Esq., and published at
the end of his " Three Letters written to the Rev.
J. FLETCHER, vicar of Madeley."
ARTICLE I.
" I BELIEVE that Jesus Christ died for the whole
human race, and that he had no more love toward
those who now are, or hereafter shall be, in glory, than
for those who now are, or hereafter shall be, lifting up
their eyes in torments ; and that the one are no more
indebted to his grace than the other."
THE GENUINE CREED,
Being an anti-Calvinian confession of faith, for those
who believe that " Christ tasted death for every
man ;" and that some men, by " denying the Lord
that bought them, bring upon themselves swift de-
struction."
ARTICLE I.
We believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole
human race, with an intention, first, to procure abso-
lutely and unconditionally a temporary redemption, or
an initial salvation for all men universally: and,
84 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
secondly, to procure a particular redemption, or an
eternal salvation conditionally for all men, but abso-
lutely for all that die in their infancy, and for all the
adult who obey him, and are " faithful unto death."
We believe that, in consequence of the general and
temporary redemption procured by Christ for all man-
kind, every man is unconditionally blessed with a day
of grace, which the Scripture calls " the accepted time,"
and " the day of salvation." During this day, (under
various dispensations of grace, and by virtue of various
covenants made through Christ, David, Moses, Abra-
ham, Noah, or Adam,) God, for Christ's sake, affords
alt men proper means, abilities, and opportunities to
"work out their own salvation," or to make "their
calling and conditional election" to the eternal bless-
ings of their respective dispensations "sure;" and as
many do it, by keeping " the free gift which is come"
unto all men, or by recovering it through faithful obe-
dience to reconverting grace: or, in other terms, as
many as know, and perseveringly improve " the day
of their visitation," are, in consequeuce of Christ's par-
ticular redemption, entitled to an eternal redemption or
salvation : that is, they are eternally redeemed from
hell, and eternally saved into different degrees of
heavenly glory, according to the different degrees of
their faithfulness, and the various dispensations which
they are under. While they that bury their talent, and
" know not [i. e., squander away] the day of their visita-
tion," forfeit their initial salvation, and secure to them-
selves God's judicial reprobation, together with all its
terrible consequences.
We believe, moreover, that although Christ " tasted
death for every man," yet, according to his covenants
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 85
of peculiarity or distinguishing grace, he formerly
showed more love to the Jews than to the Gentiles,
and now shows more favour to the Christians than to
the Jews, and to some Christians than to others ; be-
stowing more spiritual blessings upon the Protestants
than upon the Papists; more temporal mercies upon
the English than upon the Greenlanders, &c. We
farther believe that this special favour is not only na-
tional, but also, in some cases, personal : thus it seems
that God showed more of it to Jacob than to Esau ; to
Esau than to Shechem ; to David and Solomon than
to Jonathan and Mephibosheth ; to St. Paul than to
Apollos ; and to Peter, James, and John, than to Judas,
Bartholomew, and Matthias. We likewise believe that
God (according to his prescience) has a regard for
the souls who (he foresees) will finally yield to his
grace, and this regard he has not for the souls who
(he foresees) will finally harden themselves against
his goodness : thus, with respect to divine foreknow-
ledge, we grant that Christ had a respect for fallen
Peter which he had not for fallen Judas : for, when
they were both lying in the guilt of their crimes, he
could not but prefer him who had not yet sinned out
his day of grace to him who had : him who had done
the Spirit of grace a partial, temporary despite, to him
who had done that Spirit a total and final despite.
And, in a word, him who would repent to him who
absolutely would not. However, this peculiar regard
for some men, this lengthening or shortening a sinner's
day of grace arbitrarily, and this bestowing more talents,
i. e., more temporal and spiritual blessings upon one
man than upon another, according to the sovereign
prerogative which God claims in his covenants of pecu-
86 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
liarity ; this peculiar regard for some men, I say, never
amounts to a grain of partiality in judgment: much
less to a rape committed by overbearing grace, or in-
frustable wrath, upon the moral agency of two men,
(suppose Peter and Judas,) to bring about, in an un-
avoidable manner, the final perseverance of the one,
and the final apostacy of the other. For had the
covetous traitor humbly repented when he could have
done it, he yet would have gone to heaven ; and had
the lying, perjured apostle put off his repentance as
obstinately as Judas did, he would have gone to the
place of impenitent apostates : for God having " put
life and death before" the sons of men ; and having
appointed eternal rewards for those who " finally choose
life" in the rectitude of their conduct, and eternal pu-
nishment for those who " finally choose death in the
error of their ways," he can no more finally turn the
scale of their will than he can deny himself, and turn
the solemnity of the great day into the pageantry of a
Pharisaic masquerade.
The end of the first article of Mr. Hill's Fictitious
Creed is not less contrary to all our principles than the
middle part. For, according to all our doctrines of
grace, persons who are in glory like Peter are infinitely
more indebted to Christ's grace than persons who lift
up their eyes in torments like Judas. This will appear,
if we consider the case of those two apostles. Although
they were both equally indebted to Christ for his re-
deeming love, which put them in a state of initial sal-
vation ; and for his distinguishing favour, which raised
them to apostolic honours ; yet upon our scheme Peter
is infinitely more beholden to free grace than Judas ;
and I prove it thus : Christ, according to his remune-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 87
rative election, which draws after it a particular redemp-
tion and eternal salvation ; Christ, I say, according to
that remunerative election, has chosen Peter to the
reward of a heavenly throne and a crown of glory.
Now this election, in which Judas has no interest,
springs from God's free grace, as well as from volun-
tary perseverance in the free obedience of faith. It
was of free grace that God designed to give to all peni-
tent, persevering believers, and of consequence to Peter,
a crown of glory in his heavenly kingdom : for he
might have given them only the conveniences of life
in a cottage on earth : he might have dropped them
into their original nothingness, after having blessed
them with one single smile of his approbation: nay,
he might have demanded their utmost obedience, with-
out promising them the least reward. Therefore Peter
and all the saints in glory are indebted to Christ, not
only for their rewards of additional grace on earth, but
also for all their eternal salvation, and for all the
heavenly blessings which flow from their particular
redemption. Infinitely gracious rewards these, which
God does not bestow upon Judas, nor upon any of those
who die impenitent ! Infinitely glorious rewards !
which nothing but God's free grace in Christ could
move his distributive justice to bestow upon persevering
believers. Hence it is evident that Mr. Hill has tried
to make our fundamental doctrine of general redemp-
tion appear ridiculous, by absurdly clogging it with an
odious consequence, which has no more to do with that
comfortable doctrine than we have to do with Mr. Hill's
uncomfortable tenet of absolute reprobation.
88 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE II.
" I believe that divine grace is indiscriminately given
to all men ; and that God, foreseeing that by far the
greater part of the world will reject Ins grace, doth
nevertheless bestow it upon them, in order to heighten
their torments, and to increase their damnation in hell."
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE II.
We do not believe that divine grace is indiscrimi-
nately given to all men. For although we assert that
God gives to all at least one talent of true grace to
profit with ; yet we acknowledge that he makes as real
a difference between man and man, as between an
angel and an archangel, giving to some men one
talent, to others tivo talents, and to others Jive, according
to the election of distinguishing' grace, maintained in
the Scripture Scales, sec. xii. But the least talent of
grace is saving, if free will do not bury it to the last.
And we believe that although God foresaw that in
some unhappy period of the world's duration the greater
part of adults would reject his grace, he nevertheless
bestows it in different measures upon 'all; but not (as
Mr. Hill says) " in order to heighten the torments, and
increase the damnation of any in hell." This is a
horrid conceit, which we return to those who insinuate
that God gives common grace (that is, we apprehend,
unsaving, graceless grace} to absolute reprobates,
i. e., to men for whom (upon Mr. Hill's scheme of ab-
solute reprobation) there never was in God the least
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 89
degree of mercy and saving goodness. This shocking
consequence, fixed upon us by Mr. Hill, is the genuine
offspring of Calvinistic non-election, which supposes
that God sends the gospel to myriads of men from
whom he absolutely keeps the power of believing it ;
tantalizing them with offers of free grace here, that he
may, without possibility of escape, sink them here-
after to the deepest hell, the hell of the Capernaites.
According to the gospel, the reprobation that draws
eternal damnation after it springs from our own per-
sonal free will doing a final despite to free grace, and
not from God's eternal free wrath. And if Mr. Hill
ask " why God gives a manifestation of the Spirit of
grace to men who (he foresees) will do it a final despite,
as well as to those who through that grace will work
out their own salvation ;" we reply :
1. For the same reason which made him give celes-
tial grace to the angels who became devils by squander-
ing it away ; paradisiacal grace to our first parents ;
expostulating, Gentile grace to Cain; Jewish, royal
grace to Saul ; and Christian, apostolic grace to Judas.
If Mr. Hill says he does not understand what that
reason is ; we answer : By the same reason which in-
duced the master who corrected Mr. Hill for making a
bad exercise at Westminster school to give his pupil
pen, paper, ink, and proper instruction, before he could
reasonably call Mr. Hill to an account for his exercise.
And by the same reason which would make all Shrop-
shire cry out against Mr. Hill as against a tyrannical
master, suppose he horsewhipped his coachman and
postilion for not driving him, if he had taken away
from them boots, whips, spurs, harness, coach, and
horses ; and if he had contrived himself the fall of
90 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
their apartment, that all their bones might be put out
of joint when the floor gave way under them.
2. If Mr. Hill is not satisfied with these illustrations,
we will give him some direct answers. God gives a
manifestation of his grace to those who make their
reprobation sure by finally resisting his gracious Spirit ;
First, Because he will show himself as he is, " gracious
and merciful," " true and longsuffering toward all," so
long as " the day of their visitation" lasts. Thus he
bestows a talent upon all his slothful servants who bury
it to the last, because he will display his equity and
goodness, although they will display their wickedness
and sloth. Secondly, Because he is determined that if
those servants will destroy themselves, their blood shall
be upon their own heads, according to the well-known
scripture : " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. I
would, and ye would not." Thirdly, Because God will
"judge the world in righteousness," and display his
distributive justice in rendering to all according to " their
works ;" deservedly clothing his finally unfaithful ser-
vants with shame, and making the faithful walk with
him in white, " because they are [evangelically] worthy."
And, to sum up all in one, because the two gospel
axioms are firm as the pillars of heaven and hell ; and
God will display their truth before men and angels, and
especially before Pharisees and Antinomians. Now,
according to the first axiom, there is a Saviour, a
measure of saving grace, and a day of initial salvation
for all. And, according to the second axiom, there is
free will in all, and a day of judgment, with a final
salvation or damnation for all, according to their good
or bad works, that is, according to their free agency ;
the good works of the righteous being the product of
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 91
their free, avoidable co-operation with God's grace ; and
the bad works of the wicked springing- from their free,
avoidable rebellion against that grace.
Hence it appears that the second article of the Ficti-
tious Creed contains, indeed, a " shocking, not to say
blasphemous" consequence, but that this consequence is
nothing but a sprig of Mr. Hill's supposed " orthodoxy,"
absurdly grafted upon the supposed "heresy" which
St. John and St. Paul maintain in these words : " He
[Christ] was the true light which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. The grace of God which
bringeth salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching
[not forcing] us to deny ungodliness, &c., and to live
soberly," &c., if we are obedient to its teachings.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE III.
" I believe it depends WHOLLY on the will of the
creature whether he shall or shall not RECEIVE ANY
benefit from divine grace."
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE III.
We believe that the benefits of a temporary redemp-
tion, of a day of salvation, and of the " free gift" which
"came upon all men" to the justification mentioned
Rom. v, 18 : we believe, I say, these benefits, far from
" depending wholly on the will of the creature," as to
the RECEIVING of them, depend no more upon us than
our sight and the light of the sun. All those blessings
are at first as gratuitously and irresistibly bestowed upon
us, for Christ's sake, in our present manner of existence,
92 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
as the divine image and favour were at first bestowed
upon our first parents in paradise, with this only differ-
ence ; before the fall their paradisiacal grace came im-
mediately from God our Creator; whereas, since the
fall, our penitential grace comes immediately and irre-
sistibly from God our Redeemer ; I say irresistibly,
because God does not leave to our option whether we
shall receive a talent of redeeming grace or not, any
more than he left it to Adam's choice whether Adam
should receive five talents of creative grace or not;
although afterward he gives us leave to bury or im-
prove our talent of redeeming grace, as he gave leave
to Adam to bury or improve his five talents of creative
grace. Our doctrine of the general redemption and
free agency of mankind stands, therefore, upon the
same Scriptural and rational ground which bears up
Mr. Hill's system of man's creation and moral agency
in paradise ; it being impossible to make any objection
against the personal loss of redeeming grace in Judas,
that may not be retorted against the personal loss of
creative grace in Adam or Satan.
But, with respect to all the temporal and eternal
benefits which God has promised by way of reward to
his every " good and faithful servant," we believe that
they depend upon the concurrence of two causes ; the
first of which is the free grace of God in Jesus Christ ;
and the second, the faithfulness of our assisted and
rectified free will, which faithfulness is graciously
crowned by God's remunerative justice and evangelical
veracity. And, instead of blushing at this doctrine, as
if it were " shocking," we glory in it, as being perfectly
rational, strictly Scriptural, and equally distant from the
two rocks against which Calvinian orthodoxy is dashed
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
93
in pieces : I mean, the twin doctrines of wanton free
grace and eternal free wrath, according to which God,
without any respect to the faith or unbelief, to the good
or bad works of free agents, absolutely ordained for
some of them the robe of Christ's imputed righteous-
ness, and the unavoidable reward of eternal life by the
mean of unavoidable faith ; while he absolutely ap-
pointed for all the rest the robe of Adam's imputed
unrighteousness, and the unavoidable punishment of
eternal death by means of necessary, unavoidable un-
belief.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE IV.
" Though the Scripture tells me that the carnal
mind is enmity against God, yet I believe that there is
something in the heart of every natural man that can
nourish and cherish the grace of God : and that the
sole reason why this grace is effectual in some and riot
in others is entirely owing to themselves, and to their
own faithfulness or unfaithfulness, and not to the dis-
tinguishing love and favour of God."
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE IV.
Though the Scriptures tell us " that the carnal mind
is enmity against God," and that "the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit," yet we believe that, from the time
God initially raised mankind from their fall, and pro-
mised them the celestial bruiser of the serpent's head,
there is a gracious free agency in the heart of every
man who has not yet sinned away his day of salva-
94 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
tion : and that, by means of this gracious free agency,
all men, during the " accepted time," can concur with,
and work under the grace of God, according to the
dispensation they belong to. Again : we believe that
no child of Adam is a " natural man" in the Calvinian
sense of the word, [i. e., absolutely destitute of all saving
grace,] except he who has actually sinned away his day
of grace. And when we consider a man as absolutely
graceless, or as " a child of wrath" in the highest sense
of the word, we consider him in fallen Adam, before
God began to raise mankind by the promise of the
woman's seed : or we must consider that man in his
own person after he has done final despite to the Spirit
of that grace which has more or less clearly appeared
to all men under various dispensations.
Mr. Hill greatly mistakes if he thinks that, according
to our doctrine, God's grace is " effectual in some, and
not in others ;" for we believe that it is effectual in all,
though in a different manner. It has its first and
most desirable effect on them that " cherish it" through
the above-mentioned gracious free agency. And it has
its second and less desirable effect on those who finally
reject the gracious counsel of God toward them : for it
reproves their sins ; it galls their consciences ; it renders
them inexcusable ; it vindicates God's mercy ; it clears
his justice; it shows that the Judge of all the earth
does no wrong ; and it begins in this world the just
punishment which righteous vengeance will complete
in the next.
The grace of God, therefore, like the gospel that
testifies of it, is a two-edged sword : it is a savour of
life to those who cherish it, and a savour of death to
those who resist it. That some cherish it, by its assist-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 95
ance work righteousness to the last, and then receive
the reward of the inheritance, is not " entirely owing
to themselves and to their own faithfulness," as the
Fictitious Creed asserts : nor is it " entirely owing to
the love and favour of God." This happy event has
two causes : the first is free grace, by the assistance
of which the faith and good works of the righteous are
begun, continued, and ended : the second is free will
humbly working with free grace, as appears by the
numerous scriptures balanced in the Scripture Scales.
And that some, on the other hand, resist the grace of
God, and are personally given up to a reprobate mind
that they might be damned, is not at all owing to God's
free wrath, as the scheme of Mr. Hill supposes : nor is
it entirely owing to the unfaithfulness and obstinacy of
impenitent sinners. This unhappy event has also two
causes : the first is man's free will finally refusing to
concur with free grace, in working out his own salva-
tion ; and the second is just wrath, revenging the
despite done to God's free grace by such a final
refusal.
With respect to "the distinguishing love and favour"
of God our Judge, and his distinguished hatred and ill
will, (on which our eternal rewards and punishments
unavoidably turn, according to Mr. Hill's twin doctrines
of finished salvation and finished damnation,) we dare
not admit them into our holy religion. We give to
"distinguishing favour" an important place in our creed,
as appears from the first article of this ; but that favour
has nothing to do with God's judicial distribution of
rewards or punishments, i. e., with God's appointing of
us to eternal life or to eternal death. We believe that
it is a most daring attempt of the Antinomians to place
96 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
distinguishing favour and distinguishing displeasure
upon the judicial throne of God, and in the judgment
seat of Christ ; no decrees proceeding from thence but
such as are dictated by impartial justice putting Christ's
evangelical law in execution, and strictly judging (i. e.,
justifying or condemning, rewarding or punishing)
moral agents, according to their works. We should
think ourselves guilty of propagating " a shocking, not
to say blasphemous" doctrine, if we insinuated, that
" distinguishing favour," and not unbribed justice, dic-
tates God's sentence; God himself having enacted,
"Cursed be he that perverteth judgment, &c., and all
the people shall say, Amen," Deut. xxvii, 19. Nor
need I tell Mr. Hill this, who has hinted that God is
such a partial Judge; yea, that he carries partiality to
such a height as to say to a man who actually defiles
a married woman, and treacherously plots the murder
of her injured husband, "Thou art all fair, my love, my
undefiled, there is no spot in thee: thou art a man after
my own heart." If Mr. Hill has forgotten this anec-
dote, I refer him to the Five Letters, the sale of which
he does not scruple to advertise again in his Three
Letters, saying : " I now think it the way of duty to
permit the Five Letters to Mr. Fletcher, <fcc., to be
again sold, in order that both friends and enemies may,
if possible, be convinced that I never retracted my
sentiments" Strange confidence of boasting ! O
mores ! What have morality and godliness done to
Mr. Hill, that he will put them to a perpetual blush,
lest his Venus (for she no longer deserves the name of
Diana] should redden one moment ?
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 97
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE V.
" I believe that God sincerely wishes for the salvation
of many who never will be saved ; consequently, that
it is entirely owing to want of ability in God, that what
he so earnestly willeth is not accomplished."
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE V.
We believe that God's attributes perfectly harmonize.
Accordingly his goodness and mercy incline him to
"wish for the salvation of" all men, upon gracious
terms, laid down by his wisdom and veracity. As a
proof of the sincerity of his wish, he swears by him-
self, that his antecedent will or decree is not " that sin-
ners should die ; but that," by the help of his free grace
and the submission of their free will, " they should turn
and live." He does more still : he grants to all men a
day of initial salvation, and "all that day long he
stretches forth his hands" to them. He reproves them
for their sins : he calls upon them in various ways to
repent; and gives them power to do it according to one
or another dispensation of his grace ; requiring little of
those to whom he gives little, and much of those to
whom much is given. But it is his subsequent decree,
dictated chiefly by his holiness, justice, and sove-
reignty, that, if free agents will none of his reproofs,
and finally disregard the offers of his grace, " his Spirit
shall not always strive with them." A day of calamity
shall follow the day of their neglected salvation ; and
justice shall be glorified in their righteous destruction.
This is the sad alternative which God has set before
5
98 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
them, if, in opposition to his antecedent will, they
(through their free agency) finally choose death, in
finally choosing the way that leads to it.
This part of our doctrine may be summed up in
three propositions. (1.) God's mercy absolutely wills
the initial salvation of all men by Jesus Christ. (2.)
God's goodness, holiness, and faithfulness, absolutely
will the eternal salvation of all those who, by the con-
currence of their assisted, unnecessitated free will, with
his redeeming grace, are found penitent, obedient be-
lievers, at the end of their day of initial salvation. And,
(3.) God's justice, sovereignty, and veracity, absolutely
will the destruction of all that are found impenitent at
the close of the day of their gracious visitation, or initial
salvation. To see the truth of these three propositions,
we need only consider them in the light of these two
gospel axioms, and compare them with these declara-
tions of Moses and Jesus Christ : " I set life and death
before you ; [free agents, who enjoy a day of initial sal-
vation ;] choose life," (I offer it you first : " choose
life," I say,) " that you may live eternally. But if you
choose death in the error of your ways," your rejected
Saviour will complain, "How often would I have gath-
ered you as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings,
but ye would not : and now the things that made for
your peace are hid from your eyes :" that is, you are
given up to judicial blindness, and to all its fearful con-
sequences.
Hence it is evident, that the damnation of those who
obstinately live and die in their sins, and whom God
was willing to save as free agents upon gospel terms,
argues no " want of ability in him" to save them eter-
nally, if he would give up the day of judgment, and
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 99
exert his omnipotence in opposition to his wisdom, jus-
tice, holiness, and veracity ; or if he would destroy the
most wonderful of all his works, which is the free will
of moral agents. We never doubted his ability to un-
man man, and eternally to save all mankind, if he
would absolutely do it ; it being evident that the Al-
mighty can overpower all his creatures if he should be
bent upon it, and drive them from sin to necessitated
holiness, and from hell to heaven, for more easily than
a shepherd can drive his frighted sheep from the market
.to the slaughter house. Therefore, the supposition
that, upon our principles, God wants ability to save"
whom he absolutely will save, is entirely groundless ;
every man being actually saved so far as God* abso-
lutely wills: for, first, God absolutely wills that all
men should be unconditionally saved with initial sal-
vation ; and thus all men are unconditionally saved :
and, secondly, he absolutely wills that all men, who
are obedient and faithful unto death, should absolutely
be saved with an eternal salvation : and thus all men
* The reader is desired to take particular notice of this observa-
tion, because it cuts up by the root Bradwarden's famous argument.
"If you allow, (says he,) (1.) That God is able to do a thing, and,
(2.) That he is [absolutely] willing to do a thing : then, (3.) I af-
firm, that the thing will not, cannot go unaccomplished : otherwise
God must either lose his power, or change his mind. If the [abso-
lute] will of God could be frustrated and vanquished, its defeat would
arise from the created wills either of angels or of men. But could
any created will whatever, &c., counteract and baffle the will of
God, the will of the creature must be superior either in strength or
in wisdom to the will of the Creator ; which can by no means be
allowed." We fully grant to Mr. Toplady that the argument is
' extremely conclusive," provided the two words " absolutely" and
" absolute" be taken into it ; and therefore, we maintain, as well as
he, that man is actually saved, so far as God absolutely wills.
100 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
who are obedient and faithful unto deatli are actually
saved. They shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of Christ's protecting hand. But what
has this Scripture doctrine to do with Calvinism?
With the necessary, eternal, finished salvation of ALL
the disobedient sheep, who turn goats, foxes, lions, and
serpents? Who, far from remembering Lot's wife,
slily rob their neighbours of their ewe lambs, their
heart's blood, their reputation ?
To conclude : the most that Mr. Hill can justly say
against our principles, is : (1.) That, according to the
gospel which we preach, man is a free agent, and God
is wise, holy, true, and just ; as well as good, loving,
patient, and merciful : and, (2.) That one half of
these attributes do not permit him to necessitate free
agents ; that is, to make them absolutely DO or FOR-
BEAR those actions by which they are to stand or fall
in judgment. And let men of reason and religion
say, if this doctrine be not more rational and Scrip-
tural than the Calvinian doctrine of finished salva-
tion, and of its inseparable counterpart, finished dam-
nation.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE VI.
" I believe that the Redeemer not only shed his pre-
cious blood, but prayed for the salvation of many souls
who are now in hell ; consequently, that his blood was
shed in vain, and his prayer rejected of his Father, and
that therefore he told a great untruth when he said, I
know that thou nearest me always."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 101
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE VI.
We believe that the Redeemer did not shed his pre-
cious blood or pray absolutely in vain for any man:
seeing he obtained for all men, in their season, a day
of grace and initial salvation, with a thousand spirit-
ual and temporal blessings. Nor were his prayers for
the eternal salvation of those who die impenitent re-
jected by his Father ; for Christ never prayed that they
should be eternally saved in impenitency. Before Mr.
Hill can reasonably charge us with holding doctrines
which imply that Christ told a gross untruth when he
said, " I know that thou hearest me always," he must
prove that Christ ever asked the eternal salvation of
some men, whether they repented or not ; or that he
ever desired his Father to force to the last repentance,
faith, and obedience, upon any man. If Mr. Hill can-
not prove this, how can he make it appear that, accord-
ing to our doctrines of grace, one of our Lord's prayers
was ever rejected? We grant that Christ asked thq
forgiveness of his murderers, and of those who made
sport with his sufferings ; but he asked it upon gospel
terms, that is, conditionally. Nor was his prayer inef-
fectual; for it obtained for them time to repent, and
uncommon helps so to do, with a peculiar readiness in
God to pardon them upon their application for pardon :
and if, after all, through the power of their free agency,
they despised the pardon offered them in the gospel,
and repented not, they shall deservedly perish accord-
ing to Christ's own declaration. He has acted toward
them the part of a gracious Saviour : he never engaged
himself to act that of a tyrant : I mean, he never sent
102 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
either his good Spirit, or the evil spirit of Satan, to bind
the wills of men with adamantine chains of necessi-
tated righteousness, or of necessitated iniquity, that he
might cast some into Abraham's bosom, and others into
hell, as Nebuchadnezzar sent the strongest men in his
army to bind Daniel's companions, and to cast them
into the burning fiery furnace.
Once more : we believe that, with respect to the re-
ward of the inheritance, and the doctrine of eternal sal-
vation, Christ's atonement and intercession are like his
gospel. Now his gospel is guarded by what one of
Mr. Hill's seconds queerly calls " the valiant Sergeant
IF," that is, the conditionally of the promises and
threatenings which relate to eternal salvation and eter-
nal damnation : and this conditionally is the rampart
of the old gospel, and the demolition of the new;
strongly guarding the ancient doctrines of free grace,
free will, and just wrath, against the novel doctrines of
overbearing grace, bound will, and free wrath.
I should not do justice to our cause if I dismissed
this article without retorting Mr. Hill's objection. I
have shown how unreasonably we are accused of hold-
ing doctrines, which, by "unavoidable" consequence,
represent Christ as " telling a gross untruth :" and now
we desire Mr. Hill, or his seconds, to show how the Son
of God could, consistently with truth, profess himself to
be the " Saviour of men." the Saviour and "light of the
world," and "the drawer of all men unto himself;" if
most men have been from all eternity under the fearful
curse of Calvinian reprobation. We ask, if the Re-
deemer would have "told a gross untruth." upon the
supposition that Calvinism is true, had he called him-
self the reprobater of men ; the non-redeemer, the
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 103
damner of the world, and the rejecter of all men
from himself; seeing that, according to the doctrines
of grace, (so called,) the bulk of mankind were ever
reprobated, never redeemed, never initially saved, and
never drawn to Christ We beseech candid Protestants
to say if the Bible do not clear up all the difficulties with
which prejudiced divines have clogged the genuine doc-
trines of grace, when it testifies that our Redeemer and
Saviour has procured a general temporary redemption,
together with an initial salvation, for all men univer-
sally ; and a particular eternal redemption, together
with a finished salvation, for "them that obey him. and
endure to the end." And we entreat the lovers of the
whole truth as it is in Jesus to help us to bring about
this Scriptural plan, a reconciliation between those who
contend for the doctrines of particular redemption and
finished salvation ; and those who maintain the doc-
trines of general redemption and of "a day of salva-
tion" for all mankind.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE VII.
" I believe that God, foreseeing some men's nature
will improve the grace which is given them, and that
they will repent, believe, and be very good, elects them
unto salvation/'
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE VII.
We believe that out of mere mercy, and rich free
grace in Jesus Christ, without any respect to foreseen
repentance, faith, or goodness, God places all men in a
state of initial salvation : electing them to that state ac-
104 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
cording to the mysterious counsel of his distinguishing
love, which places some under the bright and direct
beams of gospel truth ; while he suffers others to re-
ceive the external light of it only through that variety
of clouds which we call Calvinism, Popery, Judaism,
and Mohammedanism;* leaving most in Gentilism,
that is, in the dispensation under which Cain, Abel,
Abimelech, king of Ger*ar, and Melchisedec, king of
Salem, formerly were.
2. We believe that God, for Christ's sake, peculiarly
(although with different degrees of favour) accepts all
those who, in all the above-mentioned religions, i. e., "in
every nation, fear him and work righteousness." These,
when considered as enduring to the end, are his elect,
according to the election of remunerative justice. For
these he is gone to " prepare the many mansions in his
Father's house :" for these he designs the " reward of
the inheritance that fadeth not away in heaven." And
when he speaks of some men as belonging to this
number, it is always wkh respect to his foreknowledge
that they will freely persevere in the obedience of faith ;
it being the highest pitch of Antinomian dotage to sup-
pose that God, the true, the wise, the holy, and right-
eous God, elects men to the reward of persevering
* Calvinism is Christianity obscured by mists of Pharisaic elec-
tion and reprobation, and by a cloud of stoical fatalism. Popery is
Christianity under a cloud of Pharisaic bigotry, and under thick fogs
of heathenish superstition. Judaism is Christianity under the veil
of Moses. Mohammedanism is a jumble of Christianity, Judaism,
Gentilism, and imposture. And Gentilism is the religion of Cain
and Abel ; or, if you please, of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, under a
cloud of false and dark tradition. Some call it the religion of na-
ture : I have no objection to the name, if they understand by it the
religion of our nature in its present state of initial recovery, through
Christ, from its total fall in Adam.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 105
obedience, without taking any notice of persevering
obedience in his election.
To sum up all in a few lines : the doctrine of elec-
tion has two branches : according to the first branch
we are chosen that we should be holy and obedient, in
proportion to the ordinary or extraordinary helps which
divine grace affords us under one or other of its dis-
pensations. This election to" holiness has nothing to
do with prescience; it depends entirely on free grace and
distinguishing favour. According to the second branch
of the doctrine of election, we are chosen to receive the
rewards of perfected holiness and of persevering obedi-
ence, in proportion both to the talents which free distin-
guishing grace has afforded us, and to the manner in
which our assisted free will has improved those talents.
This remunerative election depends on four things:
(1.) On free grace, promising for Christ's sake the reward
of the inheritance to the persevering obedience of faith.
(2.) On faithful free will, securing that reward by
the assistance of free grace, and by the free obedience
of faith. (3.) On divine faithfulness, keeping its
gospel promise for ever. And, (4.) On distributive
justice, dispensing the reward according to the law of
Christ, and according to every man's work. This elec-
tion therefore has much to do with divine prescience, as
depending in part upon God's knowledge that " some
men have improved, or will improve, the grace which
is given them, repent, believe, and be good [if not 'very
good'] and faithful servants unto the end."
Unprejudiced readers will easily see how much our
doctrine of election is preferable to that of our oppo-
nents. Ours draws after it only a harmless reprobation
from some peculiar favours, and a righteous reproba-
5*
106 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
tion from rewards of grace and glory obstinately de-
spised, or wantonly forfeited ; but the election of the
Calvinists is clogged with the dreadful dogmas of an
unscriptural and terrible reprobation, which might be
compared to a well-known monster, "Prima Leo, pos-
trema Draco, media ipsa Chimera" Its head is
free wrath ; its body, unavoidable sin ; and its tail,
finished damnation. In a word, our election recom-
mends God's free, distinguishing grace, without pouring
any contempt on the holiness of Christ's precepts, the
sanction of his law, the veracity of his threaten ings,
and the conditionally of his promises. And our rep-
robation displays God's absolute sovereignty, without
sullying his mercy, impeaching his veracity, or dis-
gracing his justice. In a word, our election doctrinally
guards the throne of sovereign grace, and our reproba-
tion that of sovereign justice : but Calvinian election
and reprobation doctrinally overthrow both these
thrones : or if they are left standing, it is to allow free
wrath to fill the throne of justice, and unchaste, bloody
Diana, to step into the throne of grace, whence she
hints to Laodicean believers that they may with advan-
tage commit adultery, murder, and incest ; calling as
many as take her horrid innuendoes, " My love, my
undefiled," &c., and assuring them that they shall never
perish, and that all things (the most grievous sins not
exeepted) shall work for their good.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE VIII.
" I believe that the love and favour of Him, with
whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning, and
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 107
whose gifts and callings are without repentance, may
vary, change, and turn every hour, and every moment,
according to the behaviour of the creature."
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE VIII.
We believe that God's works were all originally very
good, arid that God did love or approve of them all as
very good in their places. We maintain that some of
God's works, such as some angels, and our first parents,
by free avoidable disobedience forfeited God's love or
approbation. He approved or loved them while they
continued righteous; and disapproved or hated them
when the bad use which they made of their free will
deserved his disapprobation or hatred. Again : we be-
lieve that God's absolute gifts and callings are with-
out repentance. God never repented that he gave all
mankind his paradisiacal favour in Adam, and yet all
mankind forfeited it by the fall. God never repented
that he called all his servants, and " gave to every one"
of them his talents, as he thought fit ; and yet, when
the " wicked and slothful servant had buried" and for-
feited his talent, God said, " Take the talent from
him !"
Once more: we believe, that so certain as God is
the gracious Creator and the righteous Judge of angels
and men, the doctrines of divine grace and divine justice
(or the two gospel axioms) are perfectly reconcileable ;
and that, of consequence, God can justly curse mankind
with temporal death, after having blessed them with
paradisiacal life ; and punish them in hell, after having
blessed them a second time with initial salvation during
their day of personal probation on earth. To deny this,
108 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
is to deny that there are graves on earth, or torments in
hell, for any of the children of men.
Nevertheless, we believe that there is no positive
change in God. From eternity to eternity he is the
same holy and faithful God ; therefore he unchange-
ably " loves righteousness and hates iniquity." Apos-
tacy in men or in angels does not imply any change in
him ; the change being only in the receptive disposition
of his free willing creatures. If I make my eyes so
sore that I cannot look with pleasure at the sun, or that
its beams, which cheered me yesterday, give me pain
to-day ; this is no proof that the sun has changed its
nature. The law that condemns a murderer absolves
me now ; but if I stab my neighbour in ten minutes,
the same law that now absolves me will in ten minutes
condemn me. " Impossible !" says Mr. Hill's scheme :
" the law changes not." I grant it ; but a free agent
may change ; and the law of liberty, which is but the
transcript of God's eternal nature, is so ordered, that,
without changing at all, it nevertheless treats all free
agents according to their changes. The changes that
God makes in the world do not change him ; much
less is he changed by the variations of free agents :
such variations, indeed, lay rebels and penitents open to
a new aspect from the Deity ; but that aspect was in
the Deity before they laid themselves open to it. Fire,
without changing its nature, melts wax and stiffens
clay ; now, if a rebel's heart absolutely hardens itself,
so that it becomes like unyielding clay ; or if a peni-
tent's heart humbles itself, so that it becomes like yield-
ing wax, God changes not any more than the fire,
when he hardens the stiff rebel by resisting him, and
melts the yielding penitent by giving him more grace.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 109
To understand this better, we must remember that
God's eternal nature is to " resist the proud, and give
grace to the humble ;" and that when free grace (which
has appeared to all men) assists us, we are as free to
choose humility and life as we are to choose pride
and death when we dally with temptation, or indulge
the natural depravity of our own hearts. Hence it
follows that the judicious difference which God makes
when he alternately smiles and frowns, dispenses re-
wards and punishments, springs not from any altera-
tion in his unchangeable nature, but from a change in
the mutable will and behaviour of free agents ; a change
this, which arises from their will freely resisting
divine grace, if the alteration be for the worse ; and
from their will yielding without necessity to that
grace, if the change be for the better. Nor are we
any more ashamed to own man's free agency before a
world of fatalists than we are ashamed to say, " Verily
there is a reward for the righteous : though hand join
in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished : doubt-
less there is a God that judgeth the earth, and will
render to every man according to his works ;" that is,
according to his free will ; works being our own works
only so far as they spring from our own free will. And
we think that the opposite doctrine is one of the most
absurd errors that ever disgraced Christianity ; and one
of the most dangerous engines which were ever invented
in Babel to sap the walls of Jerusalem ; a dreadful
engine this, which, if it rested upon truth, would pom-
floods of disgrace on all the divine perfections ; would
overset the tribunal of the Judge of all the earth ; and
would raise upon the tremendous ruins the throne of
the doctrinal idol of the day : I mean the spurious doc-
110 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
trine of grace, which I have sometimes called the great
Diana of the Calvinists, because, like the great Diana
of the Ephesians, it may pass at once for LUNA, or
finished salvation in heaven, and for HECATE, or
finished damnation in hell.
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE IX.
" I believe that the seed of the word by which God's
children are born again is a corruptible seed ; and that,
so far from enduring for ever, (as that mistaken apostle
Peter rashly affirms,) it is frequently rooted out of the
hearts of those in whom it is sown."
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE IX.
We believe that the word or the truth of God is the
divine seed by which sinners are born again when
they receive it, that is, when they believe; and this
spiritual seed (as that enlightened apostle Peter justly
affirms) " endures for ever ;" but not for Antinomian
purposes ; not to say to fallen believers, in the very act
of adultery or incest, " My love ! my undefiled !" No :
it " endures for ever," as a seed of reviving or terrifying
truth : it " endures for ever" as a two-edged sword to
defend the righteous, or to wound the wicked ; to pro-
tect obedient believers, or to pierce disobedient and ob-
stinate unbelievers ; it " endures for ever" as a sweet
" savour of life" to them that receive and keep it ; and
as a bitter " savour of death" to them that never receive
it, and to them that finally cast it away, and neve r
" bring forth fruit to perfection."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. Ill
But although the seed of the word can never be lost
with respect to both its effects, yet (as we have already
observed) it is too frequently lost with regard to its more
desirable effect : if Mr. Hill doubts of it, we refer him
to the parable of the sower, where our Lord observes
that the good seed was thus lost in three sorts of people
out of four, merely through the want of co-operation or
concurrence on the part of free will, which he calls good
or bad ground, soft or " stony ground," &c., according
to the good or bad choice it makes, and according to the
steadiness or fickleness of that choice. And if Mr. Hill
exclaim against the obvious meaning of so well-known
a portion of the gospel, the world will easily see that,
supposing his doctrine of grace deserves to be called
chaste, when it prompts him to vindicate, as openly as
he dares, the profitableness of adultery and incest to
fallen believers ; it by no means merits to be called
devout, when it excites him to insinuate that our Lord
preached a "shocking, not to say blasphemous doc-
trine."
THE FICTITIOUS CREED.
ARTICLE X.
" I believe that Christ does not always give unto his
sheep eternal life ; but that they often perish, and are
by the power of Satan frequently plucked out of his
hand."
THE GENUINE CREED.
ARTICLE X.
We believe that Christ's sheep, mentioned in John x,
are obedient, persevering believers ; that is, as our Lord
himself describes them, John x, 4, 5, 27, persons that
112 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
" hear [i. e., obey] his voice," and " whom he knows,"
[i. e., approves ;] persons that " know [i. e., approve] his
voice ;" that " know not [i. e., do not approve] the voice
of strangers ;" and " flee from a stranger," instead of
following him : in a word, persons that actually " follow
the good Shepherd" in some of his folds or pastures.
In this description of a sheep, every verb is put in the
present tense, to show us that the word sheep denotes
a character, or persons "actually possessed of such a
character. So that the moment the character changes ;
the moment a man who once left all to follow Christ
leaves Christ to " follow a stranger," he has no more to
do with the name and privileges of a sheep than a
deserter or a rebel has to do with the name and privi-
leges of his majesty's soldiers or subjects.
According, then, to our doctrine, no " sheep of
Christ" that is, no actual follower of the Redeemer,
perishes. We think it is shocking to say that any of
them are plucked out of his hand. On the contrary,
we frequently say, with St. Peter, " Who will harm you
[much more, who will separate you from the love of
Christ] if ye be followers of that which is good ?" i. e.,
if you be sheep : and we insist upon the veracity of our
Lord's promise, "He that endureth unto the end," in
the character of a sheep, i. e., in the way of faith and
obedience, " the same shall be [eternally] saved." And
we maintain, that so long as a believer does not make
shipwreck of the faith and of a good conscience; so
long as he continues a sheep, a harmless follower of the
Lamb of God, he can no more perish than God's ever-
lasting throne can be overturned. But what has this
doctrine of our Lord to do with Calvinism ?
With regard to the sheep mentioned in Matt, xxv,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 113
33, 34, whom our Lord calls " blessed of his Father,"
we believe that they represent the multitude of obedient,
persevering believers, whom two apostles describe thus :
" Blessed are they that do his [God's] commandments,
that they may have right [or, if Mr. Hill pleases, privi-
lege] to the tree of life, and enter, &c., into the city,"
Rev. xxii, 14. " Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation ! for when he is tried, he shall receive the
crown of life, which the Lord 'hath promised to them
that love him." " And this is the love of God, that we
keep his commandments," James i, 12 ; 1 John v, 3.
For such enduring, obedient believers, a kingdom of
glory " is prepared from the foundation of the world :"
and to it they are and shall be judicially elected ; while
the goats, i. e., unbelievers, or disobedient, fallen be-
lievers, are and shall be judicially reprobated from it.
Hence it is, that when our Lord accounts for his judi-
cial election of the obedient, (whom he parabolically
calls sheep,) he does not say, " Inherit the kingdom,"
&c. ; for I absolutely finished your salvation : but he
says, " Inherit the kingdom, for ye gave me meat," &c. ;
ye fed the hungry from a right motive ; and what you
did in that manner, I reward it as if you had done it to
myself. In other terms, " Ye heard my voice, and fol-
lowed me ;" in hearing the whispers of my grace, and
following the light of your dispensation ; and now I
own you as my eternally rewardable elect, my sheep,
which have followed me without finally drawing back.
Again : when our Lord gives an account of the judi-
cial reprobation of the finally disobedient, whom he
parabolically calls goats, lie does not say, " Depart, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for you from the
foundation of the world ;" for then I absolutely finished
114 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
your eternal reprobation. No : this is the counterpart
of the gospel of the day. But he says, " Depart, &c. ;
for ye gave me no meat," by feeding the hungry in
your generation, &c. : that is, ye did not believingly
follow me in following your light and my precepts.
Either you never began your course, or you drew back
before you had finished it. Either you never volun-
tarily listed under my banner, or you deserted before
you had " fought the godd fight" out : either you never
believed in me, the light of the world, and your light ;
or, instead of keeping the faith, you voluntarily, avoid-
ably, unnecessarily, and resolutely made shipwreck of
it and of a good conscience : and therefore your damna-
tion is of yourselves. You have personally forfeited
your conditional election to the rewards of persevering
obedience, and personally made your conditional re-
probation from those rewards sure by your final dis-
obedience.
From these evangelical descriptions of the sheep and
the goats, mentioned in John x, and Matt, xxv, it ap-
pears to us indubitable : (1.) That these sheep [i. e.,
obedient, persevering believers] " shall never perish ;"
although they might have perished, if they had "brought
upon themselves swift destruction by denying the Lord
that bought them." (2.) That they shall be eternally
saved, although they might have missed eternal salva-
tion, if they had finally disregarded our Lord's declara-
tion : " He that endureth unto the end, the same shall
be [finally] saved." (3.) That the good Shepherd pecu-
liarly laid down his life for the eternal redemption of
obedient, persevering believers ; and that these believers
are sometimes eminently called God's elect, because
they make their conditional calling to the rewards of
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 115
perseverance sure, by actually persevering in the obe-
dience of faith. (4.) That the peculiarity of the eternal
redemption of Christ's persevering followers, far from
being connected with the absolute reprobation of the
rest of mankind, stands in perfect agreement with the
doctrines of a general, temporary redemption, and a
general, initial salvation ; and with the doctrines of
a gratuitous election to the blessings of one or another
dispensation of God's saving grace ; and of a condi-
tional election to the rewards of voluntary, unnecessi-
tated obedience. (5.) That our opponents give the
truth as it is in Jesus two desperate stabs, when they
secure the peculiar, eternal redemption of finally dis-
obedient believers, and comfort mourning backsliders in
so unhappy a manner, as to overthrow the general,
temporary redemption of all mankind, and to encou-
rage or countenance the present disobedience of Laodi-
cean believers. (6.) That the Calvinian doctrines of
grace, which do this double mischief under such fair
pretences, are, of all the tares which the enemy sows,
those which come nearest to the wheat, and of conse-
quence those by which he can best feed his immoral
goats, deceive simple souls, set Christ's moral sheep at
perpetual variance, turn the fruitful field of the church
into a barren field of controversy, and make a Deistical
world think that faith is enthusiastical fancy; that
orthodoxy is immoral nonsense ; and that revelation is
nothing but an apple of discord. (7.) And, lastly, that
the doctrines of grace which we maintain do equal
justice to the divine attributes; defend faith, without
wounding obedience ; oppose Pharisaism, without re-
commending Antinomianism ; assert the truth of God's
promises, without representing his most awful threaten-
116 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
ings as words without meaning; reconcile the Scrip-
tures, without wounding conscience and reason ; exalt
the gracious wonders of the day of atonement, without
setting aside the righteous terrors of the great day of
retribution ; extol our heavenly Priest, without pouring
contempt upon our divine Prophet ; and celebrate the
honours of his cross, without turning his sceptre of
righteousness into a Solifidian reed, his royal crown
into a crown of thorns, and his law of liberty into a
rule of life, by which his subjects can no more stand
or fall in judgment than an Englishman can stand or
fall by the rules of civility followed at the French
court.
To the best of my knowledge, reader, thou hast been
led into the depth of our doctrines of grace. I have
opened to thee the mysteries of the evangelical system,
which Mr. Hill attacks as the heresy of Arminians.
And now let impartiality hand thee up to the judg-
ment seat : let reason and revelation hold out to thee
their consentaneous light : pray that the " Spirit of
truth" may help thine infirmities : turn prejudice out
of the court ; and let candour pronounce the sentence,
and say whether our principles or those of Mr. Hill
" inevitably" draw after them " shocking, not to say
blasphemous," consequences 1
I shall close this answer to the creed which that
gentleman has composed for Arminians by an observa-
tion which is not entirely foreign to our controversy.
In one of the Three Letters which introduce the Ficti-
tious Creed Mr. Hill says : " Controversy, I am per-
suaded, has not done me any good ;" and he exhorts
me to examine closely whether I cannot make the same
confession. I own that it would have done me harm,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 117
if I had blindly contended for my opinions. Nay, if I
had shut my eyes against the light of truth ; if I had
set the plainest scriptures aside, as if they were not
worth my notice; if I had overlooked the strongest
arguments of my opponents ; if I had advanced ground-
less charges against them ; if I had refused to do justice
to their good meaning or piety : and, above all, if I had
taken my leave of them by injuring their moral charac-
ter, by publishing over and over again arguments which
they had properly answered, without taking the least
notice of their answers ; if I had made a solemn pro-
mise not to read one of their books, though they should
publish a thousand volumes ; if, continuing to write
against them, I had fixed upon them (as " unavoidable"
consequences) absurd tenets, which have no more ne-
cessary connection with their principles than the doc-
trine of general redemption has with Calvinian repro-
bation ; if I had done this, I say, controversy would
have wounded my conscience or my reason ; and, with-
out adding any thing to my light, it would have im-
moveably fixed me in my prejudices, and perhaps brand-
ed me before the world for an Arminian bigot. But, as
matters are, I hope I may make the following acknow-
ledgment without betraying the impertinence of proud
boasting.
Although I have often been sorry that controversy
should take up so much of the time which I might,
with much satisfaction to myself, have employed in de-
votional exercises ; and although I have lamented, and
do still lament, my low attainments in the " meekness
of wisdom," which should constantly guide the pen of
every controversial writer ; yet I rejoice that I have been
enabled to persist in my resolution either to wipe off or
118 BEATTTIES OF FLETCHER.
to share the reproach of those who have hazarded their
reputation in defence of pure and undented religion :
and, if I am not mistaken, my repeated attempts have
been attended with these happy effects. In vindicating
the moral doctrines of grace, I hope that, as a man, I
have learned to think more closely, and to investigate
truth more ardently, than I did before. There are
rational powers in the dullest souls, which lie bid as
sparks in a flint. Controversial opposition and exer-
tion, like the stroke of the steel, have made me accident-
ally find out some of these latent sparks of reason, for
which I should never have thanked my Maker if I .had
never discovered them. I have frequently been thank-
ful to find that my horse could travel in bad roads better
than I expected ; nor do I think that it is a piece of
Pharisaism to say, I am thankful to find that my mind
can travel with more ease than I thought she could
through theological roads, rendered almost impassable
by heaps of doctrinal rubbish brought from all parts of
Christendom, and by briers of contention which have
kept growing for above a thousand years. To return :
As a divine. I see more clearly the gaps and stiles at
which mistaken good men have turned out of the
narrow way of truth to the right hand and to the left.
As a Protestant, I hope I have much more esteem for
the Scriptures in general, and in particular for those
practical parts of them which the Calvinists had insen-
sibly taught me to overlook or despise: and this in-
creasing esteem is, I trust, accompanied with a deeper
conviction of the truth of Christianity, and with a greater
readiness to defend the gospel against infidels, Pharisees,
and Antinomians. As a preacher, I hope I can do
more justice to a text, by reconciling it with seemingly
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHEft. 119
contrary scriptures. As an anti-Calvinist, I have
learned to do the Calvinists justice in granting that
there is an election of distinguishing grace for God's
peculiar people, and a particular redemption for all
believers who are faithful unto death ; and by that
means, as a controvert ist, I can more easily excuse
pious Calvinists, who, through prejudice, mistake that
Scriptural election for their Antinomian election ; and
who consider that particular redemption as the only
redemption nlentioned in the Scriptures. Nay, I can,
without scruple, allow Mr. Hill, that his doctrines of
finished salvation and irresistible grace are TRUE
with respect to alt those who die in their infancy. As
one who is called an Arminian, I have found out some
flaws in Arminianism, and evidenced my impartiality
in pointing them out, as well as the flaws of Calvinism.*
As a witness for the truth of the gospel, I hope I have
learned to bear reproach from all sorts of people with
more undaunted courage : and I humbly trust that,
were I called to seal with my blood the truth of the
doctrines of grace and justice against the Pharisees
and the Antinomians, I could (divine grace supporting
me to the last) do it more rationally, and of conse-
quence with greater steadiness. Again : as a follower
of Christ, I hope I have learned to disregard my
dearest friends for my heavenly Prophet : or, to speak
the language of our Lord, I hope I have learned to
" forsake father, mother, and brothers, for Christ's sake
and the gospel's." As a disputant, I have learned that
solid arguments and plain scriptures make no more
impression upon bigotry than the charmer's voice does
See Preface to Fictitious and Genuine Creed, Fletcher's Works,
vol. i, p. 395.
120 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
upon the deaf adder; and by that mean, I hope, I
depend less upon the powers of reason, the letter of
the Scripture, and the candour of professors, than I
formerly did. As a believer, I have been brought to
see and feel that the power of the Spirit of truth,
which teaches men to be of one heart and of one mind,
and makes them think and speak the same, is at a
very low ebb in the religious world ; and that the prayer
which I ought continually to offer is, O Lord, baptize
Christians with the Spirit of truth, and the fire of love.
Thy kingdom come ! Bring thy church out of the
wilderness of error and sin into the kingdom of " right-
eousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." As a
member of the Church of England, I have learned to
be pleased with our holy mother for giving us floods of
pure morality to wash away the few remaining Cal-
vinian freckles still perceptible upon her face. As a
Christian, I hope I have learned in some degree to
exercise that charity which teaches us boldly to oppose
a dangerous error, without ceasing to honour and love
its abettors, so far as they resemble our Lord ; and
teaches us to use an irony with St. Paul and Jesus
Christ, not as an enemy uses a dagger, but as a sur-
geon uses a lancet or a caustic : and, lastly, as a writer,
I have learned to feel the truth of Solomon's observa-
tion: "Of making many books there is no end, and
much study is a weariness of the flesh ; let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter : fear God and keep his
commandments ; for this is the whole duty of man,"
and the sum of the anti-Solfidian truth which I endea-
vour to vindicate.
I do not say that I have learned any of these lessons
as I should have done ; but I hope I have learned so
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 121
much of them as to say that in these respects my con-
troversial toil has not been altogether in vain in the
Lord. And now, reader, let me entreat thee to pray
that, if I am spared to vindicate more fully what ap-
pears to us the Scriptural doctrine of grace, I may
be so helped by the Father of lights and the God of
love, as to speak the pure truth in perfect love, and
never more drop a needlessly severe expression. Some
3uch have escaped me before I was aware. In endea-
vouring to render my style nervous, I have sometimes
inadvertently rendered it provoking. Instead of saying
that the doctrines of grace (so called) represented God
as "absolutely graceless" toward myriads of "repro-
bated culprits," I would now say that, upon the prin-
ciples of my opponents, God appears "devoid of grace"
toward those whom he has absolutely " reprobated" from
all eternity. The thought is the same, I grant ; but
the expressions are less grating and more decent. This
propriety of language I labour after, as well as after
more meekness of wisdom. The Lord help me and
my antagonists to " keep our garments clean !" Con-
trovertisls ought to be clothed with an ardent, naming
love for truth, and a candid, humble regard for their
neighbours. May no root of prejudice stain that flaming
love ! no malice rend our seamless garments ! and, if
they are ever " rolled in blood," may it be only in the
blood of our common enemies, destructive error, and
the man of sin !
6
122 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER X.
A SCRIPTURAL ESSAY ON THE ASTONISHING RE-
WARDABLENESS OF WORKS ACCORDING TO THE
COVENANT OF GRACE.
SECTION I.
A VARIETY OF PLAIN SCRIPTURES, WHICH SHOW THAT
HEAVEN ITSELF IS THE GRACIOUS REWARD OF THE
WORKS OF FAITH, AND THAT BELIEVERS MAY LOSE
THAT REWARD BY BAD WORKS.
HAVING particularly guarded, in the preceding dis-
course, the doctrine of salvation by the covenant of
grace, and having endeavoured to secure the foundation
of the gospel against the unwearied attacks of the
Pharisees, I shall now particularly guard the works of
the covenant of grace, and by that mean I shall secure
the superstructure against the perpetual assaults of the
Antinomians ; a part of my work this, which is so much
the more important, as the use of a strong founda-
tion is only to bear up a useful structure.
None but fools act without motive. To deprive a
wise man of every motive to act, is to keep him in total
inaction ; and to rob him of some grand motive, is
considerably to weaken his willingness to act, or his
fervour in acting. The burning love of God is un-
doubtedly the most generous motive to obedience ; but
alas ! thousands of good men, like Cornelius, are yet
strangers to that powerful principle shed abroad in their
hearts by the Holy Ghost. In thousands of weak be-
lievers love is not yet properly kindled ; it is rather a
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 133
smoking flax than a blazing fire : in thousands of La-
odicean professors it is scarcely lukewarm ; and in all
apostates it is waxed cold. Therefore, in the sickly
state of the church militant, it is as absurd in preach-
ers to urge no motive of good works but grateful love,
as it would be in physicians to insist that a good sto-
mach must be the only motive from which their
patients ought to take either food or physic.
Our Lord, far from countenancing our doctrinal
refinements in this respect, perpetually secures the
practice of good works, by promising heaven to all that
persevere in doing them ; while he deters us from sin by
threatening destruction to all that persist in committing
it ; working thus alternately upon our hopes and fears,
those powerful springs of action in the human breast.
The force of this double incentive to practical reli-
gion I greatly weakened, when, being carried away by
the stream of Solifidianism, I rashly said in my old ser-
mon, after some of our reformers, that " good works shall
be rewarded in heaven and eternal life, although not
with eternal life and heaven." An Antinomian error
this, which I again publicly renounce, and against
which I enter the following Scriptural protest.
If the oracles of God command us to work from an
initial life of grace for an eternal life of glory, fre-
quently annexing the promise of heavenly bliss to good
works, and threatening all workers of iniquity with
hell torments, it follows, that heaven will be the gra-
cious reward of good works, and hell the just wages of
bad ones.
I readily grant, however, that if we consider our-
selves merely as sinners, in the light of the first gospel
axiom, and according to the covenant of works, which
124 BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER.
we have so frequently broken, heaven is merely the
gift of God through our Lord Jesus Christ : for, ac-
cording to that covenant, destruction is the wages of all
who have committed sin. But if we be converted sin-
ners, or obedient believers, and if we consider ourselves
in the light of the second gospel axiom, and according
to the covenant of grace, every unprejudiced person,
who believes the Bible, must allow that heaven is the
gracious reward of our works of faith.
An illustration may help the reader to see the just-
ness of this distinction. A charitable nobleman dis-
charges the debts of ten insolvent prisoners, sets them
up in great or little farms, according to their respective
abilities, and laying down a thousand pounds before
them, he says : " I have already done much for you,
but I will do more still. I freely give you this purse to
encourage your industry. You shall share this gold
among you, if you manage your farms according to my
directions ; but if you let your fields be overrun with
thorns, you shall not only lose the bounty I design for
the industrious, but forfeit all my preceding favours."
Now, who does not see that the thousand pounds thus
laid down are a free gift of the nobleman ; that, never-
theless, upon the performance of the condition or terms
he has fixed, they become a gracious reward of indus-
try; and that consequently the obtaining of this re-
ward turns now entirely upon the works of industry
performed by the farmers?
Just so eternal salvation is the free gift of God
through Jesus Christ ; and yet the obtaining of it (on
the part of adults) turns entirely upon their works of
faith ; that is, upon their works as well as upon their
faith. Hence the Scripture says indifferently, " He that
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 125
believeth is not condemned ;" and, " If thou doest well
shall thou not be accepted?" "All that believe are jus-
tified ;" and, "He that worketh righteousness is ac-
cepted." Our Lord, speaking of a weeping penitent,
says equally : " Her sins, which are many, are forgiven,
for she loved much;" and, "Thy sins are forgiven;
thy faith hath saved thee." As for St. Paul, though he
always justly excludes the works of unbelief, and merely
ceremonial works, yet he so joins faith and the works
of faith, as to show us they are equally necessary to
eternal salvation. " There is no condemnation," says
he, " to them that are in Christ by faith," (here is the
Pharisee's portion,) " who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit." (Here is the Antinomian's portion.)
Hence it appears, that living faith now and always
works righteousness, and that the works of righteous-
ness now* and always accompany faith, so long as it
remains living.
"I know this is the doctrine," says the judicious Mr.
Baxter, "that will have the loudest outcries raised
against it, and will make some cry out, Heresy, Po-
pery, tSocinianism ! and what not? For my own
part, the Searcher of hearts knoweth that not singu-
larity, nor any good will to Popery, provoketh me to
entertain it; but that I have earnestly sought the
Lord's direction upon my knees before I durst adven-
ture on it ; and that I resisted the light of this conclu-
sion as long as I was able." May this bright testimony
make way for an illuminated cloud of prophets and
/
* I use the word now, to stop up the Antinomian gap which one
of my opponents tries to keep open by insinuating, that though a
true believer' may commit adultery and murder now, yet he will
always work righteousness before he die.
126 BEAUTIES OF TLETCHER.
apostles! and may the Sun of righteousness, rising
behind it, so scatter the shades of error, that we may
awake out of our Laodicean sleep, and Antinomian
dreams, and see a glorious, unclouded gospel day !
That, in subordination to Christ, our eternal salva-
tion depends upon good works, i. e., upon the works of
faith, will, I think, appear indubitable to them that
believe the Bible, and candidly consider the follow-
ing scriptures, in which heaven and eternal life in
glory are suspended upon works, if they spring from
a sincere belief in the light of our dispensation ; I say,
if they spring from true faith, it being absolutely
impossible for a heathen, and much more for a Chris-
tian, to work righteousness without believing in some
degree "that God is, and that he is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek him," as well as the
punisher of them that presumptuously sin against
him. "For without faith it is impossible to please
God ;" all iaithless works springing merely from super-
stition, like those of Baal's priests, or from hypocrisy,
like those of the Pharisees. Having thus guarded
again the doctrine of faith, I produce some of the
many scriptures that directly or indirectly annex the
above-mentioned reward to works : And,
1. To consideration, conversion, and exercising
ourselves to godliness. "Because he considereth, and
turneth away from his transgressions, &c., he shall
surely live, he shall not die. When the wicked man
turneth away from his wickedness, <fcc., he shall save
his soul alive. Wherefore turn yourselves and live ye.
Ex rcise thyself unto godliness, for it is profitable unto
all things ; having the promise of the life that now is,
and that which is to come."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 127
2. To doing the will of God. " He that does the
will of my Father shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven. He that does the will of God abideth for
ever. Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is
my brother and sister, i. e., the same is an heir of God,
and a joint heir with Christ."
3. To confessing Christ, and calling upon the
name of the Lord.' 1 With the mouth confession is
made to salvation. Whosoever, therefore, shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Fa-
ther : but whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will I also deny before my Father. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
4. To self denial " If thy hand offend thee, cut
it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than
having two hands to go to hell, &c. And if thine eye
offend thee, pluck it out : it is better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having
two eyes to be cast into hell fire. There is no man
that hath left house, or brethren, &c., for my sake and
the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred fold now,
and in the world to come eternal life. He that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it, &c. He that hateth
his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal."
And our Lord supposes that by "gaining the world" a
man may " lose his own soul :" for, according to the
covenant of grace, even reprobates are not totally lost
till they make themselves sons of perdition, like Judas,
i. e., till they personally and absolutely " lose their own
souls" and heaven by their personal and obstinate pur-
suit of worldly things.
5. To diligent labour and earnest endeavours
" O man of God, lay hold on eternal life. Work out
128 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
your own salvation. Labour for the meat that endureth
to everlasting life. Keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life. In so doing thou
shall save thyself. Narrow is the gate that leads to
life. Strive to enter in. The violent press into the
kingdom of God, and take it by force."
6. To keeping the commandments. " Blessed are
they that do his commandments, &c., that they may
enter through the gates into the city, i. e., into heaven.
There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that
worketh abomination. If thou wilt enter into life,*
keep the commandments. Thou hast answered right;
this do and thou shall live. There is one Lawgiver,
who is able to save and to destroy : [some of whose
laws run thus:] Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.
For he shall have judgment withoul mercy, lhat hath
showed no mercy. Blessed are the peace makers, for
they shall be called the children of God, [and, of course,
the heirs of the kingdom.] The King shall say unto
them, Come, ye blessed of my Father; inherit ihe king-
dom prepared for you, for I was hungry and ye gave
me meal, &c. Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to
the Lord, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive
the reward of the inheritance : but he thai does wrong,
shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and
there is no respecl of persons. Be ye iherefore follow-
ers of God as dear children, &c., for ihis ye know, lhai
.no whoremonger, &c., hath any inheritance in the
kingdom of God. The works of the flesh are mani-
* See the excellent comment of our Church upon these words of
our Lord, Fourth Check.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 129
fest, which are these, adultery, c., of which I tell you
[believers] that they who do such things shall not in-
herit the kingdom of God."
7. To running, fighting, faithfully laying up
treasure in heaven, and feeding the flock of God.
" They who run in a race run all ; but one receiveth
the prize : so run that you may obtain. Now they are
temperate in all things to obtain a corruptible crown ;
but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, fight, and
bring my body into subjection, [that I may obtain.] lest
I myself should be cast away ;" i. e. 3 should not be ap-
proved of, should be rejected, and lose my incorruptible
crown. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on
eternal life. Lay up treasure in heaven. Make your-
selves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness,
that when you fail on earth they may receive you into
everlasting habitations. Charge them who are rich
that they do good, that they be rich in good works, lay-
ing up in store for themselves a good foundation against
the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal
life. Feed the flock of God, &c., being examples to
the flock, and when the chief Shepherd shall appear,
ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away."
To love and charity." Though I have all
faith, &c., and have no charity, I am nothing. She
[the woman] shall be saved, &c., if they [womankind]
continue in faith and charity. Whosoever hateth his
brother hath not eternal life. He that loveth not his
brother abideth in death. We know we have passed
from death unto life, because we love the brethren. If
any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema.
The crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to
them that love him."
6*
130 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
9. To a godly walk. " There is no condemnation
to them, <fec., that walk not after the flesh. As many
as walk according to this rule, mercy [be, or will be] on
them. If we walk in the light, [of good works, Matt.
v, 15,] the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.
The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Many
[fallen believers] walk, &c., enemies of the cross of
Christ, whose end is destruction."
10. To persevering watchfulness, faithfulness,
prayer, fyc. "He that endureth unto the end, the
same shall be saved. Be faithful unto death, and I
will give thee the crown of life. Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall
receive the crown of life. Because thou hast kept the
word of my patience, I will also keep thee, &c. To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my
throne. To him that keepeth my words unto the end,
&c., will I give the morning star. Take heed to your-
selves, &c., watch and pray always, that ye may be
counted worthy to escape, &c., and to stand before the
Son of man." In a word,
11. To patient continuance in mortifying- the
deeds of the body, and in well doing. " If ye live
after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spi-
rit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For
he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap per-
dition ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the
Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in
well doing, for in due season we shall reap [not if we
faint or not, but] if we faint not. He that reapeth re-
oeiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal. Ye
have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 131
life." God, at the revelation of his righteous judgment,
-"will render to every man according to his deeds : eter-
nal life to them who, by patient continuance in well
doing, seek for glory. Anguish upon every soul of
man that does evil, &c., but glory to every man that
worketh good, &c., for there is no respect of persons
with God."
Is it not astonishing, that in sight of so many plain
scriptures the Solifidians should still ridicule the pass-
port of good works, and give it to the winds as a "paper
kite?" However, if the preceding texts do not appear
sufficient, I can send another volley of gospel truths to
show that the initial salvation of believers themselves
may be lost through bad works.
I know thy works, &c., so then, " because thou art
lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth." " What
doth it profit, my brethren, though a man [ f , any one,
and two verses below, any one of you, James ii, 14,
16] say he hath faith, and hath not works," [now?]
" Can faith save him, &c. ? Faith if it hath not works
is dead, being alone. Grudge not one against another,
brethren, lest ye be condemned." [In the original it is
the same word which is rendered damned Mark xvi,
16.] "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If
we [believers] deny him, he will also deny us. Add to
your faith virtue, &c., charity, &c. If ye do these
things ye shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be
ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord. It had been better for them that
have escaped the pollutions of the world through the
knowledge of our Saviour, [i. e., for believers,] not to
have known the way of righteousness, than after they
have known it to turn from the holy commandment
132 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
delivered unto them. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit my Father
taketh away. Abide in me, &c. If a man abide not
in me [by keeping my commandments in faith] he is
cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and [lie shall
share the fate of the branches that have really belonged
to the natural vine, and now bear no more fruit] men
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned." The fig tree in the Lord's moral vineyard is
cut down for not bearing fruit. "Him that sinneth
I will blot out of my book. Some, having put away a
good conscience, concerning faith have made shipwreck.
Such as turn back to their own wickedness, the Lord
shall lead them forth with the evil doers. Toward thee
goodness, if [by continuing in obedience] thou continue
in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt be cut off."
Again : " For the wickedness of their doings I will
drive them out of my house, I will love them no more.
Some are already turned aside after Satan, having
damnation because they have cast off their first faith ;
the faith that works by love ; the mystery of faith kept
in a pure conscience ; the faith unfeigned [that the
apostle couples with] a good conscience ;" the faith that
is made perfect by works ; the faith that cries, like Ra-
chel, Give me children, give me good works, or else I die ;
the faith that faints without obedience, and actually
dies by bad works ; the following scriptures abundantly
proving that, faith, and consequently the just who live
by faith, may die by bad works.
" When a righteous man* doth turn from his right-
* That this is spoken of a truly righteous man, i. e., of a believer,
appears from the following reasons : (1.) The righteous here men.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 133
eousness and commit iniquity, &c., he shall die in his
sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not
be remembered," Ezek. iii, 20. Again: "When the
righteous, &c., does according to all the abominations
that the wicked man does, shall he live ? All his right-
eousness that he has done shall not be mentioned : in
his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that
he hath sinned, in them shall he die," Ezek. xviii, 24.
Once more : " The righteousness of the righteous shall
not deliver him in the day of his transgression, &c.
When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live ;*
if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, he
shall die for it," Ezek. xxxiii, 13.
tioned is opposed to the wicked mentioned in the context. As
surely then as the word wicked means there one really wicked, so
does the word righteous mean here one truly righteous. (2.) The
righteous man's turning from his righteousness is opposed to the
wicked man's turning from his iniquity. If, therefore, the righteous
man's righteousness is to be understood of feigned goodness, so
the wicked man's iniquity must be understood of feigned iniquity.
(3.) The crime of the righteous man here spoken of is turning from
his righteousness : but if his righteousness were only a hypocritical
righteousness, he would rather deserve to be commended for re-
nouncing it ; a wicked, sly Pharisee, being more odious to God than
a barefaced sinner, who has honesty enough not to put on the mask
of religion. Rev. iii, 15. (4.) Part of this apostate's punishment
will consist in not having the righteousness that he has done re-
membered. But if his righteousness is a false righteousness, or
mere hypocrisy, the divine threatening proves a precious promise ;
for you cannot please a hypocrite better than by assuring him that
his hypocrisy shall never be remembered. What a pity is it, that to
defend our mistakes we should fix egregious nonsense and gross
contradiction upon the only wise God !
* These words are another indubitable proof that the righteous
here mentioned is a truly righteous person ; as the holy and true
God would never say to a wicked Pharisee, that he shall surely live.
134 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHEH.
It seems that God, foreseeing the Solifidians would
be hard of belief, notwithstanding the great ado they
make about faith, condescended to their infirmity, and
kindly spoke the same thing over and over ; for setting
again the broad seal of heaven to the truth that chiefly
guards the second gospel axiom, he says for the fourth
time, " When the righteous turneth from his righteous-
ness and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby :
but if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that
which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby," Ezek.
xxxiii, 18, 19.
If Ezekiel be not allowed to be a competent judge,
let Christ himself be heard : " Then his Lord said unto
him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that
debt, &c. : shouldst not thou also have had compassion
on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And
his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor-
mentors," Matt, xviii, 26, &c.
All the preceding scriptures are thus summed up by
our Lord, Matt, xxv, 46, "These [the persons who
have not finally done the works of faith] shall go into
everlasting punishment ; but the righteous [those who
have done them to the end, at least from the time of
their reconversion, if they were backsliders] shall go
into eternal life." This doctrine agrees perfectly with
the conclusion of the sermon on the mount : " Whoso-
ever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him to a wise man, who built his house upon
a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of
mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a fool-
ish man, who built his house upon the sand." Nay, this
is Christ's explicit doctrine. No words can be plainer than
these : " They that are in their graves shall bear his
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 135
voice and come forth ; they that have done good unto
the resurrection of life ; and they that have clone evil
unto the resurrection of condemnation," John v, 29.
All creeds, therefore, like that of St. Athanasius, and all
faith, must end in practice. This is a grand article of
what might, with peculiar propriety, be called the
catholic faith the faith that is common to, and essen-
tial under all the dispensations of the everlasting gospel,
in all countries and ages : " the faith which, except a
man believe faithfully," i. e., so as to work righteousness,
like the good and faithful servant, "he cannot be
saved."
SECTION IL
AN ANSWER TO THE MOST PLAUSIBLE OBJECTIONS OF THE
SOLIFIDIANS AGAINST THIS DOCTRINE.
As some difficulties probably rise in the reader's mind
against the preceding doctrine, it may not be amiss to
produce them in the form of objections, and to answer
them more fully than I have yet done.
I. OBJECTION. "All the scriptures that you have
produced are nothing but descriptions of those who shall
be saved or damned : you have therefore no ground
to infer from such texts, that in the great day our works
of faith shall be rewarded with an eternal life of glory,
and our bad works punished with eternal death."
ANSWER. Of all the paradoxes advanced by mis-
taken divines, your assertion is perhaps the greatest.
You have no more ground for it than I have for saying
that England is a lawless kingdom, and that all the
promises of rewards, and threatenings of punishments,
136 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
stamped with the authority of the legislative power, are
no legal sanctions. If I seriously maintained that the
bestowing of public bounties upon the inventors of use-
ful arts ; that the discharge of some prisoners, and the
condemnation of others, according to the statutes of the
realm, are things which take place without any respect
to law ; that the acts of parliament are mere descrip-
tions of persons, which the government rewards, ac-
quits, or punishes, without any respect to worthiness,
innocence, or demerit ; and that the judges absolve or
condemn criminals merely out of free grace and free
wrath ; if I maintained a paradox so dishonourable to
the government and so contrary to common sense,
would you not be astonished? And if I gave the
name of Papist to all that did not receive my error as
gospel, would' you not recommend me to a dose of Dr.
Monro's hellebore ? And are they much wiser who fix
the foul blot upon the divine government, and make
the Protestants believe that the sanctions of the King
of ikngs, and the judicial dictates of him who judges
the world in righteousness, are not laws and sentences,
but representations and descriptions ?
A comparison will show the frivolousness of your
objection. There is, if I mistake not, a statute that
condemns a highwayman to be hanged, and allows a
reward of forty pounds to the person that takes him.
A counsellor observes that this statute was undoubtedly
made to deter people from going upon the highway,
and to encourage the taking of robbers. "Not so,"
says a lawyer from Geneva, "though robbers are
hanged according to law, yet the men that take them
are not legally rewarded ; the sum mentioned in the
statute is given them of free, gratuitous, undeserved,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 137
unmerited, distinguishing grace." Nay, says the coun-
sellor, if they do not deserve the forty pounds more
than other people, that sum might as well be bestowed
upon the highwaymen themselves as upon those who
take them at the hazard of their life. "And so it
might," says the Geneva lawyer ; " for although poor,
blind legalists make people believe that the promissory
part of the law was made to excite people to exert
themselves in the taking of robbers, yet we know bet-
ter at Geneva ; and I inform you that the clause you
.speak of is only a description of certain men, for whom
the government designs the reward of forty pounds
gratis." The admirers of Geneva logic clap their
hands and cry out, " Well said ! down with legality !"
but an English jury smiles and cries, "Down with
absurdity !" (See Fletcher's Works, vol. i, p. 273.)
II. OBJECTION. " You confound our title to, with
our meetness for heaven, two things which we carefully
distinguish. Our title to heaven, being solely what
Christ has done and suffered for his people, has nothing
to do with either our holiness or good works ; but our
meetness for heaven supposes holiness, if not good works.
Therefore God's unconverted, sinful people, who have,
in Christ, a complete title to heaven, by right of 'fin-
ished salvation,' shall all be made meet for heaven in
the day of his power."
ANSWER 1. I understand you, and so does Mr. Ful-
some. You insinuate that, till the day you speak of
comes, unconverted sinners and backsliders may in-
dulge themselves like the servant mentioned in the
gospel, who said, My master delayeth his coming, and
began to drink with the drunken ; but alas ! instead of
" a day of power" he saw a day of vengeance, and his
138 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
" finished salvation," so called, ended in weeping, wail-
ing, and gnashing of teeth.
2. Your distinction is contrary to the Scriptures,
which represent all impenitent workers of iniquity as
having a full title to hell according to both law and
gospel; so far are the oracles of God from supposing
that some workers of iniquity have a full title to heaven,
absolutely independent on the obedience of faith.
3. It is contrary to reason ; for reason dictates that
whosoever has a full title to a punishment, or to a reward,
is fully meet for it. Where is the difference between
saying that a murderer is fully meet for, or that he has
a full title to the gallows ? If a palace richly furnished
was bestowed upon the most righteous man in the
kingdom, and you were the person, would it not be
absurd to distinguish between your title to, and your
meetness for that recompense? Or if the king, in
consequence of a valuable consideration received from
the prince, had promised a coronet to every swift runner
in England, next to the prince's interposition and his
majesty's promise, w r ould not your running well be at
once your title to and meetness for that honour? And
is not this the case with respect to the incorruptible
crowns reserved in heaven for those who so run that
they may obtain ?
4. Your distinction draws after it the most horrid
consequences : for if a full title to heaven may be sepa-
rated from a meetness for the lowest place in heaven,
it necessarily follows that Solomon had a full tide to
heaven when he worshipped Ashtaroth ; and the in-
cestuous Corinthian when he defiled his father's bed ;
in flat opposition to the dictates of every man's con-
science, (if you except Mr. Fulsome and his fraternity.)
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 139
It follows that St. Paul told a gross untruth when he
said, " This ye know, that no idolater and no unclean
person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ
and of God." In a word, it follows that believers,
" sanctified with the blood of the covenant, who draw
back to perdition," (such as the apostates mentioned
Heb. x, 29,) may have no title to heaven in all their
sanctifying faith; while some impenitent murderers,
like David and Manasses, have a perfect title to it in
all their crimes and unbelief.
5. This is not all. Our Lord's mark, " By their
fruits ye shall know them," is absolutely wrong if you
are right : for your distinction abolishes the grand cha-
racteristic of the children of God and those of the devil,
which consists in not committing or committing iniquity,
in doing or not doing righteousness, according to these
plain words of St. John, " He that committeth sin is of
the devil. In this the children of God are manifest,
and the children of the devil. Whosoever does not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not
[much less he that murders] his brother," 1 John iii,
8, 10. Thus the Lord's sacred enclosure is broken
down, his sheepfold becomes a fold for goats, a dog-
kennel, a swine-stye. Nay, for what you know, all
bloody adulterers may be " sheep in wolves' clothing ;"
while all " those that have escaped the pollution that is
in the world" may only be " wolves in sheep's cloth-
ing ;" it mattering not, with regard to the goodness of
our title to heaven, whether " filth iness to Belial" or
" holiness to the Lord" be written upon our foreheads.
O, sir, how much more dangerous is your scheme than
that of the primitive Babel builders ! They only brought
on a confusion of the original language ; but your doc-
140 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
trine confounds light and darkness, promises and threat-
enings, the heirs of heaven and those of hell, the seed
of the woman and that of the serpent.
6. As to your intimation that holiness is secured by
teaching that God's people shall absolutely be made
willing to forsake their sins, and to become righteous
in the day of God's power, that so they may have a
meetness for, as well as a title to heaven ; it drags after
it this horrid consequence : the devil's people, " in the
day of God's power," shall absolutely be made willing
to forsake their righteousness, that they may have a
meetness for, as well as a title to hell. A bitter reverse
this of your " sweet gospel !"
To conclude. If by your distinction you only want
to insinuate that Christ is the grand and properly meri-
torious procurer of our salvation, from first to last, and
that the works of faith are only a secondaiy, instru-
mental, evidencing cause of our final salvation, you
mean just as I do. But if you give the world to under-
stand that election to eternal glory is unconditional, or,
which comes all to one, that no sin can invalidate our
title to heaven ; from the preceding observations it ap-
pears that you deceive the simple, make Christ the
minister of sin, and inadvertently poison the church
with the rankest Antinomianism.
III. OBJECTION. " You call the works of Christ the
primary and properly meritorious cause, and our works
of faith the secondary and instrumental cause of our
eternal salvation. But according to your doctrine, our
works should be called the first cause, and Christ's work
the second : for you make the final success of Christ's
work to depend on our work, which is manifestly set-
ting our performances above those of the Redeemer."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 141
ANSWER 1. When a gardener affirms that he shall
have no crop unless he dig and set his garden, does he
manifestly set his work above that of the God of nature ?
And when we say that " we shall not reap final salva-
tion, if we do not work out our salvation," do we exalt
ourselves above the God of grace ?
2. Whether our free agency turns the scale for life
or death, to all eternity Christ shall have the honour of
having died to bestow an initial life of grace even upon
those who choose death in the error of their ways, and
to have made them gracious and sincere offers of an
eternal life of glory. In this sense, then, Christ's work
cannot be rendered ineffectual ; it being his absolute
decree that the word of his grace shall be the savour
of life to obedient free agents, and the savour of death
to the disobedient. Therefore, if we will not have the
eternal benefit of his redeeming work, we cannot take
from him the eternal honour of having shed his blood
even for those who tread it under foot, and who " bring
upon themselves swift destruction by denying the Lord
that bought them."
3. Christ is not dishonoured by the doctrine that re-
presents the effect of the greater wheel as being thus in
part suspended upon the twning of the less. The light
of the sun shines in vain for me if I shut my eyes.
Life is a far nobler gift than food. I can give my
starving neighbour bread, but I cannot give him life.
Nevertheless, the higher wheel stops, if the inferior is
quite at a stand : he must die if he has no nourish-
ment. Thus, by God's appointment, the preservation
of all the first born of the Israelites in Egypt depended
upon the sprinkling of a lamb's blood ; the life of all
them that were bitten by the fiery serpents was sus-
142 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
pended on a look toward the brazen serpent ; and that
of Rahab and her friends hung, if I may so speak, on
a scarlet thread. Now, if God did not dishonour his
wisdom when he made the life of so many people to
depend upon those seemingly insignificant works ; and
if he continues to make the life of all mankind depend
upon breathing ; is it reasonable to say that he is dis-
honoured by his own doctrine, which suspends our
eternal salvation upon the works of faith ?
4. Your objection can be retorted. Most Calvinists
grant that our justification in the day of conversion
depends upon believing. Thus the Rev. Mr. Madan,
in his sermon on James ii, 24, (p. 18,) says, " Though
the Lord Jesus has merited our justification before God,
yet we are not actually justified, till he be received into
the heart by faith, and rested on," &c. Therefore, in
the day of conversion, that great minister being judge,
our justification is suspended on the work which he
calls " receiving Christ," or " resting on him." And
how much more may our eternal salvation be suspended
on faith and works ; i. e., on resting upon Christ and
working righteousness !
5. This is not all. Both Mr. Madan and Mr. Hill
call faith the instrumental CAUSE of our justification,
and every body knows that the effect is always sus-
pended on the CAUSE. Now, if so great an effect as a
sinner's present justification may be suspended upon the
single CAUSE of faith, why may not a believer's eternal
justification be suspended upon the double CAUSE of
faith and its works ? In a word, why must Mr. Wesley
be represented as heterodox for insinuating that believ-
ing and working instrumentally CAUSE our eternal
justification ; when Mr. Madan wears the badge of
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 143
orthodoxy, although he insinuates that believing instru-
mentally CAUSES our justification ?
If Mr. Madan say that he allows faith to be an in-
strumental CAUSE, on account of its being the gift of
God by which we receive Christ ; I answer, that we
allow the work of faith to be an instrumental cause,
because it springs from the Spirit of Christ, and consti-
tutes our likeness to Christ, and our evangelical right-
eousness ; a righteousness this which Christ came into
the world to promote. For God sending his Son, &c.,
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit," i. e., who walk in good works.
If it is asserted that there can be but one instrumental
cause of our salvation, that is, faith ; I appeal to reason,
which dictates that Christian faith implies a variety of
causes, such as preaching Christ, and hearing him
preached : for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God. This argument, therefore, carries its
own answer along with it.
6. To conclude: Mr. Madan, in the above-quoted
sermon, (p. 16.) says with great truth : " Christ and
faith are not one and the same thing ; how then can
we reconcile the apostle with himself, when he says, in
one place, we are justified by Christ ; and in another,
we are justified by faith ? This can only be done by
having recourse to the plain distinction which the Scrip-
tures afford us in considering Christ as the meritorious
cause, and faith as the instrumental cause, or that by
which the meritorious cause is applied unto us, so that
we are benefited thereby." Now all our heresy consists
in applying Mr. Madan's judicious reasoning to all the
scriptures that guard the second gospel axiom, thus:
144 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
" How can we reconcile the apostle with himself, when
he says, in one place, l We are saved by Christ,' and in
other places, ' We are saved by faith, we are saved by
hope. Work out your own salvation. Confession is
made to salvation,' &c., for Christ and faith, Christ and
hope, Christ and works, Christ and making confession,
are not one and the same thing ? This seeming incon-
sistency in St. Paul's doctrine vanishes by admitting a
plain distinction which the Scriptures afford us : that is,
(I.) By considering Christ, from first to last, as the pro-
perly meritorious cause of our present and eternal salva-
tion. (2.) By considering faith as the instrumental
cause of our salvation from the guilt and pollution of
sin on earth. And, (3.) By considering the works of
faith not only as the evidencing cause of our justifica-
tion in the great day, but also as an instrumental cause
of our continuing in the life of faith ; just as eating,
drinking, breathing, and such works, that spring from
natural life, are instrumental causes of our continuing
in natural life." Thus faith and its works are two
inferior causes, whereby the properly meritorious cause
is so completely applied to obedient, persevering be-
lievers, that they are now, and for ever shall be bene-
fited by it. As I flatter myself that this sixfold answer
satisfies the candid reader, I pass on to another plausible
objection.
IV. OBJECTION. " Though you assert that from
first to last the works and sufferings of Christ are the
grand and properly meritorious cause of our salvation ;
yet, according to your scheme, man having a life of
glory upon his choice, and heaven upon working out
his salvation, the honour of free grace is not secured.
For, after all, free will and human faithfulness, or un-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 145
faithfulness, turn the scale for eternal salvation or
damnation."
ANSWER. 1. In the very nature of things we are free
agents, or the wise and righteous God would act incon-
sistently with his wisdom and equity in dispensing re-
wards and punishments. If, through " the saving grace
of God" which " has appeared to all men," we were not
again endued with an awful power to "choose life,"
and to be faithful, it would be as injudicious to punish
or recompense mankind as to whip a dead horse for not
moving, condemn fire for burning, or grant water an
eternal reward for its fluidity. 2. Were I ashamed of
my moral free agency, I should be ashamed of the noble
power that distinguishes me from the brute creation.
I should be ashamed of the Old Testament, and of
Moses, who says, " Behold, I call heaven and earth to
record, that I have set before you life and death, bless-
ing and cursing; therefore choose life." I should be
ashamed of the New Testament, and of Christ, who
complains, " You will not come unto me that you might
have life," i. e., you will not use the power which my
preventing grace has given you, that you might live
here a life of faith and holiness, and be hereafter re-
warded with a life of happiness and glory. In a word,
I should give up the second gospel axiom, and tacitly
reproach my Maker, who says, " Why will ye die, O
house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in the death
of him that dieth ; wherefore turn yourselves, and
live ye."
3. To convince you that free agency, and a right
use of it, are by no means inconsistent with divine
grace and genuine humility, I ask, Did not God endue
our first parents with free will? Are not even some
7
146 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
rigid Calvinists ashamed to deny it? If free will in
man is a power dishonourable to God. did not our wise
Creator mistake when he pronounced man " very good,"
at the very time man was a free wilier ? For how could
man be very good if he had within him a power that
necessarily militates against the honour of God, as the
Calvinists insinuate free will does !
4. I go one step farther, and ask, Did God ever endue
one child of Adam with power to avoid one sin ? If you
say no, you contradict the Scriptures, your own con-
science, and the consciences of all mankind ; you fix
the blot of folly on all the judges who have judicially
punished malefactors with death ; and when you insi-
nuate that the Lawgiver of the universe will send all
workers of iniquity personally into hell for not " doing
what is lawful and right to save their souls alive," or
for not avoiding sin, when he never gave them the least
power personally so to do, you pour almost as much
contempt upon his perfections as if you hinted that he
will one day raise all creeping insects, to judge them ac-
cording to their steps, and to cast into a place of torment
as many as did not move as swiftly as a race-horse.
If you answer in the affirmative, and grant that God
has graciously endued one child of Adam with power to
avoid one sin, so far you hold free will as well as Moses
and Jesus Christ. Now, if God has bestowed free will
upon one child of Adam with respect to the avoiding of
one sin, why not upon two, with respect to the avoiding
of two sins? Why not upon all, with respect to the
avoiding of all the sins that are incompatible with the
obedience of faith ?
5. Again : as it would be absurd to say that God
gave a power to avoid one sin only to one child of
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 147
Adam ; so it would be impious to suppose God gave
him this power that, in case he faithfully used it, he
should necessarily boast of it. Pharisaic boasting is,
then, by no means the necessary consequence of our
moral liberty, or of a proper use of our free will. Thus
it appears that your specious objection is founded upon
a heap of paradoxes ; and that to embrace free wrath
lest we should not make enough of free grace, and to
jump into fatalism lest we should be proud of our free
will, is not less absurd than to prostrate ourselves before
a traitor lest we should not honour the king, and to run
to a house of ill fame lest we should be proud of our
chastity.
6. Our doctrine secures the honour of free grace as
well as Calvinism. You will be convinced of it if you
consider the following articles of our creed with respect
to free grace :(!.) Before the fall, the free grace of our
Creator gave us in Adam holiness, happiness, and a
power to continue in both. (2.) Since the fall, the free
grace of our Redeemer indulges us with a reprieve, an
accepted time, a day of visitation and salvation ; in a
word, with a better covenant, and a " free gift that is
come upon all men unto [initial] justification of life,"
Rom. v, 18. (3.) That nothing may be wanted on
God's part, the free grace of our Sanctifier excites us to
make a proper use of the free gift, part of which is
moral liberty. (4.) Thus even our free will to good
is all of creating, redeeming, and sanctifying grace.
Therefore, with regard to that glorious power, as well
as to every other talent, we humbly ask, with St. Paul,
" What hast thou, that thou hast not received ?" (5.)
This is not all : we are commanded to " account the
longsuffering of God [a degree of] salvation ;" and so
148 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
it is : for without forcing, or necessarily inclining our
will, God's providential free grace disposes a thousand
circumstances in such a manner as to second the calls
of the everlasting gospel. The gracious Preserver of
men works daily a thousand wonders to keep us out
of the grave, and out of hell. A thousand wheels have
turned ten thousand times, in and out of the church,
to bring us the purest streams of gospel truth. Count-
less breathings of the Spirit of grace add virtue to those
streams; free grace, therefore, not only prevents, but
also in numberless ways accompanies, follows, directs,
encourages, and assists us in all the works of our sal-
vation.
And yet, while God thus works in us, as the God of
all grace, " both to will and to do of his good pleasure ;"
that is, while he thus gives us the faculty to will, and
the power to do ; and while he secretly, by his Spirit,
and publicly, by his ministers and providences, excites
us to make a proper use of that faculty and power ;
yet, as the God of wisdom, holiness, and justice, he
leaves the act to our choice; thus treating us as ra-
tional creatures, whom he intends wisely to reward, or
justly to punish, according to their works, and not ac-
cording to his own.
Hence it appears that we go every step of the way
with our Calvinist brethren while they exalt Christ and
free grace in a rational and Scriptural manner ; and
that we refuse to follow them only when they set Christ
at naught as a prophet, a lawgiver, a judge, and a king,
under pretence of extolling him as a priest ; or when
they put wanton free grace and unrelenting free wrath
in the place of the genuine free grace testified of in the
Scriptures.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 149
V. OBJECTION. " One more difficulty remains : if I
freely obey the gospel and am saved ; and if my neigh-
bour freely disobeys it and is damned, what makes me
to differ from him? Is it not my free obedience of
faith'/"
ANSWER. Undoubtedly. And his free disobedience
makes him differ from you ; or it would be very absurd
judicially to acquit and reward you rather than him,
according to your wprks. And it would be strange
duplicity to condemn and punish him rather than you
in a day of judgment, after the most solemn protesta-
tions that equity arid impartiality shall dictate the
Judge's sentence.
As to the difficulty arising from St. Paul's question,
1 Cor. iv, 7, " Who maketh thee to differ ?" to what I
have said about it in the preceding sermon,* I add:
1. According to the covenant of works, " all fall short
of the glory of God." And when any one asks, with
respect to the law of innocence, " Who makes thee to
differ ?" the proper answer is, " There is no difference :
every mouth must be stopped: all the world is guilty
before God : enter not into judgment with thy servant,
O Lord." But, according to the covenant of grace, he
that freely believes and obeys in the strength of free
grace undoubtedly makes himself to differ from him
that, by obstinate disobedience, " does despite to the
Spirit of grace." If this point be given up, the Diana
and the Apollo, or rather the Apollyon, of the Antino-
mians (I mean wanton free grace and merciless free
wrath) are set up for ever. However,
2. If the question, Who maketh thee to differ ?" be
asked with respect to the number of our talents, the
* Fletcher's Works, vol. i, p. 479.
150 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
proper answer is, " God's distinguishing grace alone
maketh us to differ." And that this is the sense which
the apostle had in view is evident from the context.
He had before reproved the Corinthians for "saying
every one, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," &c. ; and
now he adds, " These things I have in a figure trans-
ferred to myself and to Apollos, that ye might learn in
us not to think [of gifted, popular men, or of yourselves]
above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed
up for one against another : for who maketh thee to
differ?" Why is thy person graceful? And why art
thou naturally an eloquent man, like Apollos, while thy
brother's speech is rude, and his bodily presence weak
and contemptible, like mine? But,
3. If you ask, " Who maketh thee to differ ?" with
respect to the improvement or non-improvement of our
gifts and graces : if you inquire whether God necessi-
tates some to disbelieve, that they may necessarily sin
and be damned ; while he necessitates others to believe,
that they may necessarily work righteousness and be
saved: I utterly deny the last question, and in this
sense St. Paul answers his own misapplied question
thus : " Be not deceived : what a man [not what God]
soweth, that shall he also reap ;" perdition if he sow to
the flesh, and eternal life if he sow to the Spirit. Nor
am I either afraid or ashamed to second him, by saying,
upon the walls of Jerusalem, that, in the last-mentioned
sense, We make ourselves to differ. And Scripture,
reason, conscience, the divine perfections, and the trump
of God, which will soon summon us to judgment, testify
that this reply stands as firm as one half of the Bible,
and the second gospel axiom on which it is immoveably
founded.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 151
Nay, there is not a promise or a threatening in the
Bible that is not a proof of our Lawgiver's want of
wisdom, or of our Judge's want of equity, if we are not
graciously endued with a capacity to make ourselves
differ from the obstinate violators of the law and de-
spisers of the gospel, that is, if we are not free agents.
There is not an exhortation, a warning, nor an entreaty
in the sacred pages that is not a demonstration of the
penman's folly, or of the freedom of our will. In a
word, there is not a sinner justly punished in hell, nor
a believer wisely rewarded in heaven, that does not in-
directly say to all the world of rationals : " Though the
God" of grace draws thee to obedience, yet it is with
" the bands of a man." For, after all, he " leaves thee
in the hand of thy counsel, to keep the commandments,
and perform acceptable obedience if thou wilt. Before
man is life and death, and whether him liketh shall be
given him," Ecclus. xv, 14, &c.
But, although your obedience of faith makes you to
differ from your condemned neighbour, you have no
reason to reject the first gospel axiom, and to indulge
a boasting* contrary to faith and free grace : for your
* There is a twofold glorying : the one Pharisaic and contrary to
faith : of this St. Paul speaks, where he says, " Boasting is excluded,
&c., by the law of faith," Rom. iii, 27. The other evangelical and
agreeable to faith, since it is a believer's holy triumph in God, re.
suiting from the testimony of a good conscience. Concerning it the
apostle says, " Let every man prove his own work, and (hen shall
he have rejoicing [boasting] in himself alone, and not in another,"
Gal. vi, 4. [The word in the original is Kavxrjoic in one passage,
and Kavxr)jJ.a in the other.] These seemingly contrary doctrines are
highly consistent ; their opposition answering to that of the gospel
axioms. The first axiom allows of no glorying but in Christ, who
has alone fulfilled the law of works, or the terms of the first cove,
nant: but the second axiom allows obedient believers an humble
152 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
Christian faith, which is the root of your obedience, is
peculiarly the gift of God ; whether you consider it as
to its precious seed, (" the word nigh ;") as to its glorious
object, (Christ and the truth ;) as to the means by which
that object is revealed, (such as preaching and hearing ;)
as to the opportunities and faculties of using those
means, (such as life, reason, &c. ;) or as to the Spirit
of grace, whose assistance in this case is so important
that he is called " the Spirit of faith." And yet that
Spirit does not act irresistibly ; all believers unnecessa-
rily and freely yielding to it, and all unbelievers unne-
cessarily and freely resisting it. So far only does the
matter turn upon free will. Thus it appears, that
although the act of faith is ours, we are so much in-
debted to free grace for it, that believers can no more
boast of being their own saviours, because they daily
believe and work in order to their final salvation, than
they can boast of being their own preservers, because
they daily breathe and eat in order to their continued
preservation.
On the other hand, although your condemned neigh-
bour's disobedience makes him differ from you, he has
Kavx'nfJ-a, " glorying" or " rejoicing," upon their personally fulfilling
the law of faith, or the gracious terms of the second covenant.
2 Cor. i, 12. This rejoicing answers to what St. Paul calls the
" witness of our own spirit," or " the testimony of a good con
science ;" which, next to the witness of the word and Spirit concern
ing God's mercy and Christ's blood, is the ground of a Christian's
confidence. " Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have W6
confidence toward God, &c., because we keep his commandments,"
1 John iii, 21, 22. And yet, astonishing ! this blessed rejoicing, so
strongly recommended by St. Paul and St. John, who, one would
think, knew something of the gospel, is now represented by some
modern evangelists as the quintessence of Pharisaism.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 153
no reason to reject the second gospel axiom, and to
exculpate himself by charging heaven with capricious
partiality and horrid free wrath : because God, whose
mercy is over all his works, and who is no respecter of
persons, graciously bestowed a talent of free grace upon
him as well as upon you, according to one or another
of the divine dispensations. For the royal master,
mentioned in the gospel, gave a pound to the servant
that buried it, as well as to him that gained ten pounds
by occupying till his lord carne.
" But, upon that footing, what becomes of distin-
guishing grace?" If by "distinguishing grace" you
mean Calvinistic partiality, I answer, It must undoubt-
edly sink, together with its inseperable partner, uncon-
ditional reprobation, into the pit of error, whence they
ascended to fill the church with contentions, and the
world with infidels. But if you mean Scriptural dis-
tinguishing grace, that is, the ' manifold wisdom of
God," which makes him proceed gradually, and admit
a pleasing variety in the works of grace, as well as in
the productions of nature ; if you mean his good plea-
sure to give the heathens one talent, the Jews two, the
Papists three, the Protestants four ; or if you mean the
different methods which he uses to call sinners to re-
pentance, such as his familiar expostulation with Cain:
his wonderful warning of Lot's sons-in-law : his rous-
ing King Saul by the voice of Samuel, and Saul of
Tarsus by the voice of Christ: (Samuel and Christ
coining, or seeming to come from the invisible world
for that awful purpose :) his audibly inviting Judas and
the rich ruler to follow him, promising the latter hea-
venly treasure if he would give his earthly possessions
to the poor : his shocking, by preternatural earthquakes,
7*
154 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
the consciences of the Philippian jailer and the two
malefactors that suffered with him: his awakening
Ananias, Sapphira, and thousands more by the wonders
of the day of pentecost, when Lydia and others were
called only in the common way : if you mean this by
" distinguishing grace," we are agreed. For grace dis-
played in as distinguishing a manner as it was toward
Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida, greatly illustrates
our Lord's doctrine : " Of him to whom little is given,
little shall be required ; but much shall be required of
them that have received much ;" the equality of God's
way not consisting in giving to all men a like number
of talents, any more than making them all archangels ;
but in treating them all equally, according to the vari-
ous editions of the everlasting gospel, or law of liberty ;
and according to the good or bad uses they have made
of their talents, whether they had few or many.
To return to your grand objection : you suppose (and
this is probably the ground of your mistake) that when
a deliverance, or a divine favour, turns upon something
which we may do, or leave undone, at our option, God
is necessarily robbed of his glory. But a few queries
will easily convince you of your mistake. When God
had been merciful to Lot and his family, not looking
back made all the difference between him and his wife;
but does it follow that he claimed the honour of his nar-
row escape ? Looking at the brazen type of Christ made
some Israelites differ from others that died of the bite
of the fiery serpents ; but is this a sufficient reason to
conclude that the healed men had not sense to distin-
guish between primary and secondary causes, and
that they ascribed to their looks the glory due to
God for graciously contriving the means of their
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 155
cure ? One of your neighbours has hanged, and an-
other has poisoned himself; so that not hanging your-
self, and taking wholesome food, has so far made the
difference between you and them : but can you reason-
ably infer that you do not live by divine bounty, and
that I rob the Preserver of men of his glory, when I
affirm that you shall surely die if you do not eat, or if
you take poison ?
Permit me to make you sensible of your mistake by
one more illustration. An anticalvinist, who observes
that God has suspended many of his blessings upon
industry, diligently ploughs, sows, and weeds his
field. A fatalist over the way, lest free grace should
not have all the glory of his crop, does not turn* one
clod, and expects seed to drop from the clouds into fur-
rows made by an invisible plough on a certain day,
which he calls " a day of God's power." When har-
vest comes, the one has a crop of wheat, and the other
* This is not spoken of pious Calvinists ; for some of them are
remarkably diligent in good works. They are Solifidians by halves ;
in principle, but not in practice. Their works outshine their er-
rors. I lay nothing to their charge but inattention, prejudice, and
glaring inconsistency. I compare them to diligent, good-natured
druggists, who, among many excellent remedies, sell sometimes
arsenic. They would not for the world take it themselves, or poi.
son their neighbours ; but yet they freely retail it, and in so doing
they are inadvertently the cause of much mischief. Mr. Fulsome,
for example, could tell which of our gospel ministers taught him
that good works are dung, and have nothing to do with eternal sal-
vation. He could inform us who lulled him asleep in his sins with
the syren songs of " unconditional election," and " finished salva-
tion, in the full extent of the word ;" that is, he could let us know
who gave him his killing dose ; and numbers of Deists could tell us
that a bare taste or smell of Calvinism has made them loathe the
genuine doctrines of grace, just as tasting or smelling a tainted par-
tridge has for ever turned some people's stomachs against partridge.
156 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
a crop of weeds. Now, although industry alone has
made the difference between the two fields, who is
most likely to give God the glory of a crop, the Solifi-
dian farmer who reaps thistles ; or the laborious hus-
bandman who has joined works to his faith in divine
Providence, and joyfully brings his sheaves home, say-
ing, as St. Paul, " By divine bounty I have planted and
Apollos has weeded, but God has given the increase,
which is all in all T
SECTION III.
SOME REFLECTIONS UPON THE UNREASONABLENESS OF
THOSE WHO SCORN TO WORK WITH AN EYE TO THE
REWARD WHICH GOD OFFERS TO EXCITE US TO OBE-
DIENCE.
FLATTERING myself that the preceding answers
have removed the reader's prejudices, or confirmed him
in his attachment to genuine free grace, I shall con-
clude this essay by some reflections upon the pride or
prejudices of those who scruple working with an eye to
the rewards that God offers with a view to promote the
obedience of faith.
" If heaven, (say such mistaken persons,) if the en-
joyment of God in glory be the reward of obedience,
and if you work with an eye to that reward, you act
from self, the basest of all motives. Love, and not
self interest, sets us, true believers, upon action. We
work from gratitude and not for profit ; from life*
* The reader is desired to observe that we recommend work-
ing from life and gratitude, as well as our opponents. Life and
thankfulness are two important springs of action, which we use as
well as they. We maintain, that even those who " have a name to
live, and are dead in trespasses and sins," cannot be saved without
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 167
and not for life. To do good with an eye to a reward,
though that reward should be a crown of life, is to act
as a mercenary wretch, and not as a duteous child or a
faithful servant."
This specious error, zealously propagated by Moli-
nos, Lady Guion, and her illustrious convert, Arch-
bishop Fenelon, (though afterward renounced by him,)
put a stop to a great revival of the power of godliness
abroad in the last century ; and it has already struck a
fatal blow at the late revival in these kingdoms. I
reverence and love many that contend for this senti-
ment ; but my regard for the truth overbalancing my
respect for them, I think it my duty to oppose their
mistake, as a pernicious refinement of Satan trans-
formed into an angel of light. I therefore attack it by
the following arguments :
1. This doctrine makes us "wise above what is
written." We read that hunger and want of bread
brought back the prodigal son. His father knew it,
but instead of treating him as a hired servant, he en-
tertained him as a beloved child.
2. It sets aside, at a stroke, a considerable part of the
Bible, which consists in threatenings to deter evil work-
ers, and in promises to encourage obedient believers :
for if it be base to obey in order to obtain a promised
reward, it is baser still to do it in order to avoid a threat-
" strengthening the things that remain and are ready to die ;" and
that thankfulness for being out of hell, and for having a day of sal-
vation through Christ, should be strongly recommended to the chief
of sinners. But thankfulness and life are not all the springs neces-
sary, in our imperfect state, to move all the wheels of obedience ;
and we dare no more exclude the other springs, because we have
these two, than we dare cut off three of our fingers, because we
have a little finger and a thumb.
158 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
ened punishment. Thus the precious grace of faith,
so far as it is exercised about divine promises and
threatenings, is indirectly made void.
3. It decries " godly fear," a grand spring of action,
and preservative of holiness in all free agents that are
in a state of probation ; and by this mean it indirectly
charges God with want of wisdom, for putting that
spring in the breast of innocent man in paradise, and
for perpetually working upon it in his word and by his
Spirit, which St. Paul calls "the spirit of bondage unto
fear;" because it helps us to believe the threatenings
denounced against the workers of iniquity, and to fear
lest ruin should overtake us if we continue in our
sins.
If ever there was a visible church without spot and
wrinkle, it was when " the multitude of them that be-
lieved were of one heart and of one soul." The
worldly minded ness of Ananias and Sapphira was the
first blemish of the Christian, as Achan's covetousness
had been of the Jewish church on this side Jordan.
God made an example of them, as he had done of
Achan ; and St. Luke observes upon it that " great fear
came upon all the church ;" even such fear as kept
them from " falling after the same example of unbelief."
Now were all the primitive Christians mean-spirited
people, because they were filled with great fear of being
punished as the first backsliders had been, if they apos-
tatized ? Is it a reproach to righteous Noah, that " be-
ing moved with fear he prepared an ark for the saving
of his house ?" And did our Lord legalize the gospel,
when " he began to say to his disciples first of all, &c.,
I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that
kill the body, &c. ; but fear him, who, after he hath
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 159
killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto
you, fear him ?" Does this mean, " Be mercenary :
yea, I say unto you, be mercenary ?"
4. HOPE has a particular, necessary reference to
promises and good things to come. Excellent things
are spoken of that grace. If St. Paul says, " Ye are
saved through FAITH," he says, also, " We are saved
by HOPE." Hence St. Peter observes, that " exceeding
great promises are given to us, that we might be par-
takers of the divine nature:" and St. John declares,
u Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth him-
self even as God is pure." Now hope never stirs, but
in order to obtain good things in view : a motive this
which our gospel refiners represent as illiberal and base.
Their scheme therefore directly tends to ridicule and
suppress the capital, Christian grace, which faith guards
on the left hand, and charity on the right.
5. Their errors spring from a false conclusion. Be-
cause it is mean to relieve a beggar with an eye to a
reward from him, they infer that it is mean to do a
good work with an eye to a reward from God ; not con-
sidering that a beggar promises nothing, and can give
nothing valuable ; whereas the Parent of good pro-
mises and can give "eternal life to them that obey
him." Their inference is then just as absurd as the
following argument : " I ought not to set my heart upon
an earthly, inferior, transitory good ; therefore I must
not set it upon the chief, heavenly, permanent good.
It is foolish to shoot at a wrong mark ; therefore I must
not shoot at the right : I must not aim at the very mark
which God himself has set up for me ultimately to level
all my actions at, next to his own glory, viz., the en-
joyment of himself, the light of his countenance, the
160 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
smiles of his open face 3 which make the heaven of
heavens."
6. God says to Abraham, and in him to all believers,
" I am thy exceeding great reward." Hence it follows,
that the higher we rise in holiness and obedience, the
nearer we shall be admitted to the throne, and the fuller
enjoyment we shall have of our God and Saviour, our
reward and re warder. Therefore, to overlook divine
rewards, is to overlook God himself, who is " our great
reward ;" and to slight " the life to come," of which
" godliness has the promise."
7. The error I oppose can be put in a still stronger
light. Not to strive to obtain our great reward in full,
amounts to saying, " Lord, thou art beneath my aim
and pursuits : I can do without thee, or without so
much of thee. I will not bestir myself, and do one
thing to obtain either the fruition, or a fuller enjoyment
of thy adorable self." An illustration or two, short as
they fall of the thing illustrated, may help us to see
the great impropriety of such conduct. If the king
offered to give all officers, who would distinguish them-
selves in the field, his hand to kiss, and a commission
in his guards, that he might have them near his per-
son ; would not military gentlemen defeat the intention
of this gracious offer, and betray a peculiar degree of
indifference for his majesty, if in the day of battle they
would not strike one blow more on account of the royal
promise ?
Again : when David asked, What shall be done to
him that killeth the giant? and when he was in-
formed that Saul would give him his daughter in mar-
riage; would the young shepherd have showed his
regard for the princess, or respect for the monarch, if he
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 161
had said, " I am above minding rewards : what I do, I
do freely : I scorn acting from so base a motive as a
desire to secure the hand of the princess, and the hon-
our of being the king's son-in-law ?" Could any thing
have been ruder and more haughty than such a
speech ? And yet, O see what evangelical refinements
have done for us ! We, who are infinitely less before
God than David was before King Saul ; we, worms
of a day, are so blinded by prejudice, as to think it be-
neath us to mind the offers of the King of kings, or to
. strive for the rewards of the Lord of lords.
"Wo to him that striveth [in generosity] with his
Maker! Let the potsherds strive thus with the pot-
sherds of the earth : [but let not] the clay say to him
that fashioneth it," " What doest thou when thou stirrest
me up to good works by the promise of thy rewards?
Surely, Lord, thou forgettest that the nobleness of my
mind, and my doctrine of finished salvation, make me
above running for a reward, though it should be for a
life of glory and thyself. Whatever I do at thy com-
mand, I am determined not to demean myself; I will
do it as Araunah, like a king." What depths of Anti-
nornian pride may be hid under the covering of our
voluntary humility !
8. The Calvinists of the last century, in their lucid
intervals, saw the absolute necessity of working for
heaven and heavenly rewards. We have a good prac-
tical discourse of J. Bunyan upon these words, "So run
that you may obtain." The burden of it is, " If you
will have a heaven, you must run for it." Whence he
calls his sermon, " The Heavenly Footman ;" and
Matthew Mead,* a staunch Calvinist, in his treatise on
* As a proof of his being sound in the doctrines of Calvinistic
163 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
The Good of Early Obedience, (p. 429,) says, with
great truth, " Maintain a holy, filial fear of God. This
is an excellent preservative against apostacy. ' By the
fear of the Lord men depart from evil,' says Solomon,
and he tells you, ' The fear of the Lord is the fountain
of life, whereby men depart from the snares of death ;'
and backsliding from Christ is one of the great snares
of death. Think much of the day of recompense, and
of the glorious reward of perseverance in that day :
'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life.' It is not those that begin well, but those
who end well, that receive the crown. It is not mer-
cenary service to quicken ourselves to obedience by the
hope of a recompense. Omnis amor mercedis non
est mercenarius, fyc. David said, 'I have hoped
for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.' He
encouraged himself to duty by the hope of glory, &c.
grace and confusion, I present the reader with the following pas-
sage, taken from the same book, printed in London, 1683, (p. 307 :)
"A believer is under the law for conduct, but not for judgment, &c.
It is the guide of his path, but not the judge of his state. The be-
liever is bound to obey it, but not to stand or fall by it." That is,
in plain English, he should obey it, but his disobedience will never
bring him under condemnation, and hinder him to stand in judg-
ment. " It is a rule of life, &c., and therefore it obliges believers as
much as others, though upon other motives, &c. : for they are not
to expect life or favour from it, nor fear the depth and rigour that
comes by it. The law has no power to justify a believer, or con-
demn him, and therefore can be no rule to try his state by." In
flat opposition to the general tenor of the Scriptures, thus summed
up by St. John : " In this," namely, committing or not committing
sin, " the children of God are manifest, and the children of the
devil." What this author says is true, if it be understood of the
Adamic law of innocence ; but if it be extended to St. Paul's law
of Christ, and to St. James' law of liberty, it is one of the danger-
ous tenets that support the chair of the Antinomian " man of sin."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 163
Hope of that glorious recompense is of great service to
quicken us to perseverance. And to the same end does
the apostle urge it : 'Be unmoveable, always abound-
ing in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' "
9. When voluntary humility has made us wise
above what is written by the apostles and by our fore-
fathers, it will make us look down with contempt from
the top of our fancied orthodoxy upon the motives by
which the prophets took up their cross, to serve God
and their generation. When St. Paul enumerates the
works of Moses, he traces them back to their noble
principle, faith working by a well ordered self love : (a
love this which is inseparable from the love of God and
man ; the law of liberty binding us to love our neigh-
bour as ourselves, and God above ourselves.} "He
chose," says the apostle, " to suffer affliction with the
people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin," &c. But why ? Because he was above looking
at the prize? Just the reverse. Because "he had
respect to the recompense of reward," Heb. xi, 26.
10. In the next chapter the apostle bids us to take
Christ himself for our pattern in the very thing which
our gospel refiners call mercenary and base : " Looking
to Jesus," says he, " who, for the joy that was set before
him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God." The
noble reward this, with which his mediatorial obedience
was crowned, as appears from these words : " He be-
came obedient unto death ; wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him." If the scheme of those who refine
the ancient gospel appears to me in a peculiarly unfa-
vourable light, it is when I see them impose upon the
164 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
injudicious admirers of unscriptural humility, and make
the simple believe that they do God service when they
indirectly represent Christ's obedience unto death as
imperfect, arid him as mercenary, actuated by a motive
unworthy of a child of God. He says, "Every one
that is perfect shall be as his master :" but we (such is
our consistency !) loudly decry perfection, and yet pre-
tend to a higher degree of it than our Lord and Master ;
for he was not above " enduring the cross [for the joy of J
sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God:'
but we are so exquisitely perfect that we will work
gratis. It is mercenary, it is beneath us to work for
glory !
11. I fear this contempt is by some indirectly poi
upon the Lord of glory to extol the spurious free grace
which is sister to free wrath ; and to persuade the simple
that " works have nothing to do with our final justifica-
tion and eternal salvation before God." A dogma this
which is as contrary to reason as it is to Scripture and
morality; it being a monstrous imposition upon the
credulity of Protestants to assert that works, which G
himself will reward with final justification and eternal
salvation, have nothing to do with that justification a
that salvation before him : just as if the thing rewarde
had nothing to do with its reward before the reward*
12. The most rigid Calvinists allow that St. Paul i
truly evangelical : but which of the sacred writers ever
spoke greater things of the reward ableness of works
than he? What can be plainer, what stronger than
these words, which I mCTst quote till they are minded :
" Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, &c.
knowing [i. e., considering] that of the Lord ye sh;
receive the reward of the inheritance. But he that
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 165
doth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath
done ; for there is no respect of persons," Col. iii, 23,
&c. Again : " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap : for he that soweth to his flesh, shall of
the flesh reap perdition but he that soweth to the
Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life," Gal.
vi, 7, 8.
From those scriptures it is evident that doing good or
bad works is like sowing good or bad seed ; and that
going to heaven or hell is like gathering what we have
sown. Now, as it, is the madness of unbelievers to
sow wickedness, and to expect a crop of happiness and
glory ; so it is the wisdom of believers to sow righteous-
ness, expecting to " reap in due time if they faint not."
Nor do we act reasonably, if we do not sow more or less
with an eye to reaping : for if reaping be quite out of
the question with Protestants, they may as wisely sow
chaff on a fallow as corn in a ploughed field. Hence I
conclude that a believer may obey, and that, if he be
judicious, he will obey, looking both to Jesus and to the
rewards of obedience ; and that the more we can fix
the eye of his faith upon his " exceeding great reward,
and his great recompense of reward," the more he will
" abound in the work of faith, the patience of hope, and
the labour of love."
13. St. Paul's conduct with respect to rewards was
perfectly consistent with his doctrine. I have already
observed, he wrote to the Corinthians, that he so " ran
and so fought as to obtain an incorruptible crown ;"
and it is well known that in the Olympic games, to
which he alludes, all ran or fought with an eye to a
prize, a reward, or a crown. But in his Epistle to the
Philippians he goes still farther: for he represents his
166 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
running for a crown of life, his pressing after rewards
of grace and glory, as the whole of his business. His
words are remarkable : " This one thing I do ; forget-
ting those things which are behind, and reaching forth
unto those things which are before, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus." And when he had just run his race out, he
wrote to Timothy, " I have finished my course ; hence-
forth there is laid up for me [as for a conqueror] a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
shall give me at that day" the great day of retribu-
tion. As for St. John, when he was perfected in love,
we find him as " mercenary" as St. Paul ; for he writes
to the elect lady, and to her believing children : " Look
to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we
have wrought, but that we receive a full reward."
14. When I read such scriptures, I wonder at those
who are so wrapt up in the pernicious notion that we
ought not to work* for a life of glory, as to overlook
even the " crown of life," with which God will reward
those who are "faithful unto death." And I am asto-
nished at the remains of my own unbelief, which pre-
vent my being always ravished with admiration at the
thought of the rewards offered to fire my soul into
* Truth is so great that it sometimes prevails over those that are
prejudiced against it. I have observed that Dr. Crisp himself, in a
happy moment, bore a noble testimony to undefiled religion. Take
another instance of it. In the volume of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield's
sermons, taken in short hand, and published by Gurney, (p. 119,)
that great preacher says : " FIRST we must work FOR spiritual life,
AFTERWARD FROM it." And (pages 153, 154) he declares : " There
are numbers of poor that are ready to perish ; and if you drop some-
thing to them in love, God will take care to repay you when you
come to judgment," I find but one fault with this doctrine. The
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 167
seraphic obedience. An idle country fellow, who runs
at the wakes for a wretched prize, labours harder in his
sportive race than, I fear, I do yet in some of my prayers
and sermons. A sportsman, for the pitiful honour of
coming in at the death of a fox, toils more than most
professors do in the pursuit of their corruptions. How
ought confusion to cover our faces ! Let those that
refine the gospel glory in their shame. Let each of
them say, " I thank thee, O God, that I am not like a
Papist, or like that Arminian, who looks at the rewards
which thou hast promised. I deny myself, and take up
my cross, without thinking of the joy and rewards set
before me," &c. For my part, I desire to humble my-
self before God, for having so long overlooked the " ex-
ceeding great reward," and the " crown of life," promised
to them that obey him ; and my thoughts shall be ex-
pressed in such words as these :
" Gracious Lord, if ' he that receiveth a prophet in
the name of a prophet shall have a prophet's reward ;'
if 'our light affliction,' when it is patiently endured,
' worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory :' if thou hast said, ' Do good and lend,
hoping for nothing again, [from man,] and your reward
shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the
Highest :' if thou animatest those who are persecuted
first of those propositions does not guard free grace so well as Mr.
Wesley's Minutes do. We should always intimate that there is no
working FOR a life of glory, or FOR a MORE ABUNDANT LIFE of grace,
but FROM an initial life of grace, FREELY given to us in Christ BEFORE
any working of our own. This I mention, not to prejudice the reader
against Mr. Whitefield, but to show that I am not so prejudiced in
favour of works as not to see when even a Whitefield, in an un.
guarded expression, leans toward them to the disparagement of free
grace.
168 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
for righteousness' sake, by this promissory exhortation,
< Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward
in heaven :' nay, if a cup of cold water only, given in
thy name, * shall in no wise lose its reward ;' and if the
least of thy rewards is a smile of approbation ; let me be
ready to go round the world, shouldst thou call me to it,
that I may obtain such a recompense.
" Since thou hast so closely connected holiness and
happiness, my duty and thy favours, < let no man be-
guile me of my reward in a voluntary humility,' nor
suffer me to be ' carried about with every wind of doc-
trine by the sleight of men,' and ' cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.' And ' whatsoever
my hand findeth to do, help me to do it with all my
might ;' not only lest I lose my reward, but also lest I
have not ' a full reward ;' lest I lose a beam of the light
of thy countenance, or a degree of that peculiar likeness
and nearness to thee with which thou wilt recompense
those who excel in virtue. So shall I equally avoid the
delusion of the Pharisees, who expect heaven through
their faithless works ; and the error of Antinomians,
who hope to enter into thy glory without the passport
of the works of faith.
" And now, Lord, if thy servant has found favour in
thy sight, permit him to urge another request ; so far
as thy wisdom, and the laws by which thy free grace
works upon free agents will permit, incline the minds
of Papists and Protestants to receive the truth as it is
in Jesus. Let not especially this plain testimony, borne
to the many great promises which thou hast made, and
to the astonishing rewards which thou offerest them
that work righteousness, be rejected by my Calvinist
brethren. Keep them from fighting against thy good-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 169
ness, and despising their own mercies, under pretence
of fighting against ' Arminian errors,' and despising
'Pelagian Checks to the Gospel.' And make them
sensible that it is absurd to decry in word the pope's
pretensions to infallibility, if, by an obstinate refusal to
' review the whole affair,' and to weigh their supposed
orthodoxy in the balances of reason and revelation,
they, in fact, pretend to be infallible themselves ; and
thus, instead of one Catholic pontiff, set up ten thou-
sand Protestant popes.
" Thou knowest, Lord, that many of them love thee ;
and that, though they disgrace thy gospel by their doc-
trinal peculiarities, they adorn it by their godly conver-
sation. O endue them with more love to their remon-
strant brethren ! Give them and me that charity which
' behaveth not itself unseemly,' which ' rejoiceth not in'
a favourite error, c but rejoiceth in the truth,' even when
it is advanced by our opponents. Thou seest, that if
they decry true holiness and good works as ' dung and
dross,' it is chiefly for fear thy glory should be obscured
by our obedience. Error, transformed into an angel of
light, has deceived them, and they think to do thee
service by propagating the deception. O gracious God,
pardon them this wrong. They c do it ignorantly in
unbelief;' therefore seal not up their mistake with the
seal of thy wrath. Let them yet ' know the truth,'
and let the truth enlarge their hearts, and ' make them
free' from the notion that thou art not ' loving to every
man' during ' the day of salvation,' and that there is
neither mercy nor Saviour for the most of their neigh-
bours, even during ' the accepted time.'
" Above all, Lord, if they cannot defend their mis-
takes, either by argument or by Scripture quoted ac-
8
170 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
cording to the context and the obvious tenour of thy
sacred oracles, give them more wisdom than to expose
any longer the Protestant religion, which they think to
defend ; and more piety than to make the men of the
world abhor thy gospel and blaspheme thy name, as
free thinkers are daily tempted to do, when they see
that those who pretend to ' exalt thee' most are, of all
Protestants, the most ready to disarm thy gospel of its
sanctions ; to turn thy judicial sentences into frivolous
descriptions; to overlook the dictates of reason and
good nature ; and to make the press groan under illo-
gical assertions and personal abuse !
" Let thy servant speak once more : thou knowest,
O Lord, that thy power being my helper, I would choose
to die rather than wilfully to depreciate that grace, that
free grace of thine which has so Iqng kept me out of
hell, and daily gives me sweet foretastes of heaven.
And now, let not readers of a Pharisaic turn mistake
what I have advanced in honour of the works of faith,
and by that mean build themselves up in their self-
righteous delusion and destructive contempt of thy
merits : help them to consider, that if our works are
rewardable, it is because thy free grace makes them so ;
thy Father having mercifully accepted our persons for
thy sake, thy Holy Spirit having gently helped our in-
firmities, thy precious blood having fully atoned for our
sins and imperfections, thy incessant intercession still
keeping the way to the throne of grace open for us and
our poor performances. Suffer not one of the sons of
virtuous pride, into whose hands these sheets may fall,
to forget that thou hast annexed ' the reward of the
inheritance' to the assemblage of the works of faith, or
to ' patient continuance in well doing,' and not to one
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 171
or two splendid works of hypocrisy done just to serve- a
worldly turn, or to bribe a disturbed, clamorous con-
science ; and enable them so to feel the need of thy
pardon for past transgression, and of thy power for
future obedience, that, as the chased hart panteth after
the water brooks, so their awakened souls may long
after Christ, in whom the penitent find inexhaustible
springs of righteousness and strength ; and to whom,
with thee and thy eternal Spirit, be for ever ascribed
praise, honour, and glory, both in heaven and upon
earth praise for the wonders of general redemption,
and for the innumerable displays of thy free grace un-
stained by free wrath honour for bestowing the gra-
cious reward of a heavenly salvation upon all believers
that make their election sure l by patient continuance
in well doing' and glory for inflicting the just punish-
ment of infernal damnation upon all that neglect so
great salvation, and to the end of the accepted time
dare thy vengeance by obstinate continuance in ill
doing."
CHAPTER XL
AN ESSAY ON TRUTH.
INTRODUCTION.
EXCEEDINGLY sorry should I be if the testimony
which I have borne to the necessity of good works
caused any of my readers to do the worst of bad works,
that is, to neglect believing, and to depend upon some
of the external, faithless performances which conceited
Pharisees call " good works ;" and by which they ab-
172 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
surdly think to make amends for their sins, to purchase
the divine favour, to set aside God's mercy, and to
supersede Christ's atoning blood. Therefore, lest some
unwary souls, going from one extreme to the other,
should so unfortunately avoid Antinomianism as to run
upon the rocks which are rendered famous by the de-
struction of the Pharisees, I shall once more vindicate
the fundamental anti-Pharisaic doctrine of salvation by
faith : I say once mare, because I have already done it
in my guarded sermon. And to the scriptures, articles,
and arguments produced in that piece, I shall now add
rational and yet Scriptural observations, which, together
with appeals to matter of fact, will, I hope, soften the
prejudices of judicious moralists against the doctrine of
faith, and reconcile considerate Solifidians to the doc-
trine of works. In order to this, I design in general to
prove that true faith is the only plant which can pos-
sibly bear good works ; that it loses its operative nature,
and dies, when it produces them not; and that it as
much surpasses good works in importance as the mo-
tion of the heart does all other bodily motions. Inquire
we first into the nature and ground of saving faith.
SECTION I.
A PLAIN DEFINITION OF SAVING FAITH, HOW BELIEVING
IS THE GIFT OF GOD, AND WHETHER IT IS IN OUR
POWER TO BELIEVE.
WHAT is faith? It is believing heartily. What is
saving faith? I dare not say that it is "believing
heartily my sins are forgiven me for Christ's sake ;" for
if I live in sin, that belief is a destructive conceit, and
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 173
not saving faith. Neither dare I say that "saving faith
is only a sure trust and confidence that Christ loved me,
and gave himself for me ;"* for, if I did, I should damn
almost all mankind for four thousand years. Such
definitions of saving faith are, I fear, too narrow to be
just, and too unguarded to keep out Solifidianism. A
comparison may convince my readers of it. If they
desired me to define man, and I said, " Man is a ra-
tional animal that lived in France in 1774," would they
not ask me whether I suppose all the rational animals
that lived on this side the English Channel in 1773
were brutes? And if you desired to know what I
mean by saving faith, and I replied, It is a supernatu-
ral belief that Christ has actually atoned for my sins
upon the cross : would you not ask me whether Abra-
ham, the father of the faithful, who would have be-
lieved a lie if he had believed this, had only damning
faith?
To avoid therefore such mistakes ; to contradict no
scriptures ; to put no black mark of damnation upon
any man, that in any nation " fears God and works
righteousness;" to leave no room for Solifidianism ; and
to present the reader with a definition of faith adequate
to " the everlasting gospel," I would choose to say, that
"justifying or saving faith is believing the saving truth
with the heart unto internal, and [as we have opportu-
nity] unto external righteousness, according to our light
* When the Church of England and Mr. Wesley give us particu-
lar definitions of faith, it is plain that they consider it according to
the Christian dispensation ; the privileges of which must be princi-
pally insisted upon among Christians ; and that our Church and Mr.
Wesley guard faith against Antinomianism, is evident from their
maintaining, as well as St. Paul, that by bad works we lose a good
conscience, and " make shipwreck of the faith."
174 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
and dispensation." To St. Paul's words, Rom. x, 10, 1
add the epithets internal and external } in order to ex-
clude, according to 1 John iii, 7, 8, the filthy imputation
under which fallen believers may, if we credit the An-
tinomians, commit internal and external adultery, men-
tal and bodily murder, without the least reasonable
fear of endangering their faith, their interest in God's
favour, and their inamissible title to the throne of
glory.
But "how is faith the gift of God?" Some persons
think that faith is as much out of our power as the
lightning that shoots from a distant cloud ; they sup-
pose that God drives sinners to the fountain of Christ's
blood as irresistibly as the infernal legion drove the
herd of swine into the sea of Galilee ; and that a man
is as passive in the first act of faith as Jonah was in
the act of the fish, which cast him upon the shore.
Hence the absurd plea of many who lay fast hold on
the horns of the devil's altar, unbelief, and cry out, "We
can no more believe than we can make a world."
I call this an absurd plea for several reasons:
(1.) It supposes that when " God commands all men
everywhere to repent and to believe the gospel," he
commands them to do what is as impossible to them as
the making of a new world. (2.) It supposes that the
terms of the covenant of grace are much harder than
the terms of the covenant of works. For the old cove-
nant required only perfect human obedience : but the
new covenant requires of us the work of an almighty
God, i. e., believing; a work this which, upon the
scheme I oppose, is as impossible to us as the creation
of a world, in which we can never have a hand.
(3.) It supposes that the promise of salvation being
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 175
suspended upon believing, a thing as impracticable to
us as the making of a new world, we shall as infallibly
be damned if God do not believe for us, as we should
be if we were required to make a world on pain of
damnation, and God would not make it in our place.
(4.) It supposes that believing is a work which belongs
to God alone : for no man in bis senses can doubt but
creating a world, or its tantamount, believing, is a work
which none but God can manage. (5.) It supposes
that (if he, who believeth not the divine record, makes
God a liar, and shall be damned] whenever unbe-
lievers are called upon to believe, and God refuses
them the power to do it, he as much forces them to make
him a liar and to be damned, as the king would force
me to give him the lie, and to be hanged, if he put me
in circumstances where I could have no chance of
avoiding that crime and punishment, but by submitting
to the alternative of creating a world. (6.) It supposes
that when Christ "marvelled at the unbelief of the
Jews," he showed as little wisdom as I should were I to
marvel at a man for not creating three worlds as
quickly as a believer can say the three creeds. (7.) That
when Christ reproved his disciples for their unbelief he
acted more unreasonably than if he had rebuked them
for not adding a new star to every constellation in
heaven. (8.) That to exhort people to " continue in
the faith," is to exhort them to something as difficult as
to continue creating worlds. And, lastly, that when
Christ fixes our damnation upon unbelief, (see Mark xvi,
16, and John iii, 18,) he acts far more tyrannically than
the king would do if he issued out a proclamation in-
forming all his subjects that whosoever shall not, by
such a time, raise a new island within the British seas,
176 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
shall be infallibly put to the most painful and lingering
death.
Having thus exposed the erroneous sense in which
some people suppose that " faith is the gift of God," I
beg leave to mention in what sense it appears to me to
be so. Believing is the gift of God's grace, as culti-
vating the root of a rare flower given you, or raising a
crop of corn in your field, is the gift of God's provi-
dence. Believing is the gift of the God of grace, as
breathing, moving, and eating, are the gifts of the God
of nature. He gives me lungs and air that I may
breathe : he gives me life and muscles that I may
move : he bestows upon me food, and a mouth, that I
may eat : and when I have no stomach, he gives me
common sense to see I must die, or force myself to take
some nourishment or some medicine. But he neither
breathes, moves, nor eats for me ; nay, when I think
proper, I can accelerate my breathing, motion, and eat-
ing ; and if I please I may even fast, lie down, or hang
myself, and by that mean put an end to my eating,
moving, and breathing. Once more : faith is the gift
of God to believers, as sight is to you. The Parent of
good freely gives you the light of the sun, and organs
proper to receive it : he places you in a world where
that light visits you daily : he apprizes you that sight
is conducive to your safety, pleasure, and profit ; and
every thing around you bids you use your eyes and
see : nevertheless, you may not only drop your curtains,
and extinguish your candle, but close your eyes also.
This is exactly the case with regard to faith. Free
grace removes (in part) the total blindness which Ad-
am's fall brought, upon us : free grace gently sends us
some beams of truth, which is the light of the " Son
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 177
of righteousness ;" it disposes the eyes of our under-
standing to see those beams ; it excites us various ways
to welcome them ; it blesses us with many, perhaps
with all the means of faith, such as opportunities to
hear, read, inquire ; and power to consider, assent, con-
sent, resolve, and re-resolve to believe the truth. But,
after all, believing is as much our own act as seeing.
We may, nay, in general do suspend, or omit the act of
faith ; especially when that act is not yet become
habitual, and when the glaring light that sometimes
accompanies the revelation of the truth is abated.
Nay, we may imitate Pharaoh, Judas, and all reprobates;
we may do by the eye of our faith what some report
that Democritus did by his bodily eyes. Being tired
of seeing the follies of mankind, to rid himself of that
disagreeable sight he put his eyes out. We may be so
averse from " the light which enlightens every man that
comes into the world ;" we may so dread it because our
works are evil, as to exemplify, like the Pharisees, such
awful declarations as these: '-Their eyes have they
closed, lest they should see, &c. : wherefore God gave
them up to a reprobate mind," and " they were blinded."
When St. Paul says that Christians " believe accord-
ing to the working of God's mighty power, which he
wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead,"
he chiefly alludes to the resurrection of Christ, and the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost ; the former of these
wonders being the great ground and object of the
Christian faith, and the latter displaying the great pri-
vilege of the Christian dispensation. To suppose, there-
fore, that nobody savingly believes who does not believe
according to an actual, overwhelming display of God's
almighty power, is as unscriptural as to maintain that
8*
God's people no longer believe than he actually repeats
the wonders of Easter day, and of the day of pentecost.
Is it not clear that the apostle had no such notions
when he wrote to the Corinthians? "I declare unto
you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which you
have received ; wherein ye stand ; by which also ye
are saved, if ye keep in memory [if ye hold fast, as the
original means] what I preached unto you, unless ye
have believed in vain. For I declared unto you, &c.,
that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and
that he rose again, according to the Scriptures, &c., so
we preach, and so ye believed." Again : how plain is
the account that our Lord and his forerunner give us
of faith and unbelief! " Verily we speak what we do
know, and testify what we have seen, and ye receive
not our witness. What he [Christ] hath seen and
heard, that he testifieth, and no man [comparatively]
receiveth his testimony ; but he that hath received his
testimony hath set to his seal that God is true."
Two things have chiefly given room to our mistakes
respecting the strange impossibility of believing. The
first is our confounding the truths which characterize
the several gospel dispensations. We see, for example,
that a poor, besotted drunkard, an overreaching, greedy
tradesman, a rich, skeptical epicure, and a proud, ambi
tious courtier, have no more taste for " the gospel of
Christ" than a horse and a mule have for the high-
seasoned dishes that crown a royal table. An immense
gulf is fixed between them and the Christian faith. In
their present state they can no more believe " with their
heart unto righteousness in Christ," than an unborn
infant can become a man without passing through in-
fancy and youth. But, although they cannot yet be-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 179
lieve savingly in Christ, may they not believe in God
according to the import of our Lord's words : " Ye be-
lieve IN GOD, believe also IN ME?" If the Pharisees
could not believe in Christ, it was not because God
never gave them a power equal to that which created
the world; but because they were practical Atheists,
who actually rejected the morning light of the Jewish
dispensation, and by that mean absolutely unfitted
themselves for the meridian light of the Christian dis-
pensation. This is evident from our Lord's own words :
" I know you, that ye have not the love of God [or a
regard for God] in you. I come in my Father's name,
and ye receive me not, [though ye might do it ; for] if
another shall come in his own name, him ye will re-
ceive. How can ye believe, who receive honour one of
another? &c. There is one that accuseth you, even
Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses,
[and submitted to his dispensation,] ye would have
believed me, [and submitted to] my gospel. But if ye
believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my
words?"
The second cause of our mistake about the impossi-
bility of believing now, is the confounding of faith with
its fruits and rewards; which naturally leads us to
think that we cannot believe, or that our faith is vain,
till those rewards and fruits appear. But is not this
being ingenious to make the worst of things? Had
Abraham no faith in God's promise till Isaac was born ?
Was Sarah a damnable unbeliever till she felt the long-
expected fruit of her womb stir there ? Had the woman
of Canaan no fsrith till our Lord granted her request,
and cried out, " O woman, great is thy faith, let it be
done unto thee even as thou wilt?" Was the centurion
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
an infidel till Christ " marvelled at his faith," and de
clared " he had not found such faith, no, not in Israel ?"
Was Peter faithless till his Master said, " Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona," &c. 1 Did the weeping penitent
begin to believe only when Christ said to her, " Go in
peace, thy faith hath saved thee?" And had the apostles
no faith in the promise of the Father," till their heads
were actually crowned with celestial fire ? Should we
not distinguish between our sealing the truth of our
dispensation with the seal of our faith, according to our
present light and ability ; and God's sealing the truth
of our faith with the seal of his power, or actually re-
warding us by the grant of some eminent and uncom-
mon blessing ? To believe is OUR part ; to make " signs
follow them that believe" is GOD'S part ; and because
we can no more do God's part than we can make a
world, is it agreeable either to Scripture or reason to
conclude that doing our part is equally difficult? Can
you find one single instance in the Scriptures of a soul
willing to believe, and absolutely unable to do it ? From
these two scriptures, " Lord, increase our faith ; Lord,
I believe, help thou my unbelief," can you justly infer
that the praying disciples and the distressed father had
no power to believe? Do not their words evidence just
the contrary ? That we cannot believe, any more than
we can eat, without the help and power of God, is what
we are all agreed upon ; but does this in the least prove
that the help and power by which we believe is as far
out of the reach of willing souls as the help and power
to make a world ?
Such scriptures as these : " Unto you it is given to
believe : a man can receive nothing, except it be given
him from above : no man can come unto me except the
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 181
Father draw him : every good gift [and of course that
of faith] cometh from the Father of lights." Such
scriptures, I say, secure, indeed, the honour of free
grace, but do not destroy the power of free agency.
To us that freely believe in a holy, righteous God, it is
given freely to believe in a gracious, bleeding Saviour ;
because the sick alone "have need of a physician;"
and none but those who believe in God can see the
need of an advocate with him. But ought we from
hence to conclude that our unbelieving neighbours are
necessarily debarred from " believing in God ?" When
our Lord said to the unbelieving Jews that they could
not believe in him, did he not speak of a moral impo-
tency an impotency of their own making? I ask it
again, If they obstinately resisted the light of their in-
ferior dispensation ; if they were none of Christ's Jewish
sheep, how could they be his Christian sheep? If an
obstinate boy sets himself against learning the letters,
how can he ever learn to read ? If a stubborn Jew
stiffly opposes the law of Moses, how can he submit to
the law of Christ ? Is it not strange that some good
people should leap into reprobation, rather than admit
so obvious a solution of this little difficulty ?
From the above-mentioned texts we have, then, no
more reason to infer that God forces believers to believe,
or that he believes for them, than to conclude that God
constrains diligent tradesmen to get money, or gets it
for them, because it is said, " We are not sufficient to
think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is
of God who gives us all things richly to enjoy. Re-
member the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee
power to get wealth."
From the whole I conclude, that so long as " the ao
182 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
cepted time" and " the day of salvation" continue, all
sinners who have not yet finally hardened themselves
may, day and night, (through the help and power of
the general light of Christ's " saving grace," mentioned
John i, 9, and Tit. ii, 11,) receive some truth belonging
to the everlasting gospel ; though it should be only this :
" There is a God, who will call us to an account for our
sins, and who spares us to break them off by repent-
ance." And their cordial believing of this truth would
make way for their receiving the higher truths that
stand between them and the top of the mysterious
ladder of truth. I grant it is impossible they should
leap at once to the middle, much less to the highest
round of the ladder : but if the foot of it is upon earth,
in the very nature of things the lowest step is within
their reach, and, by laying hold on it, they may go on
"from faith to faith" till they stand firm even in the
Christian faith, if distinguishing grace has elected them
to hear the Christian gospel. The most sudden con-
versions imply this gradual transition. As in the very
nature of things, when " the Spirit of the Lord caught
away Philip" from the eunuch, and transported him to
Azotus, he made Philip's body rapidly measure all the
distance between the wilderness of Gaza and Azotus :
so, when he helped the Philippian jailer from the gates
of hell to the gates of heaven in one night, he made
him rapidly pass through the fear of God, the dread of
his justice, and the pangs of penitential desires after
salvation, before he entered into the joyous rest that
remains for those that heartily believe in Christ. Nor
is this quick, though gradual transition from midnight
darkness to noon-day light an unintelligible mystery,
since we are witnesses of a similar event eveiy revolving
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 183
day. The vegetable and the animal world help us
likewise to understand the nature of sudden conver-
sions. Every philosopher knows that a mushroom passes
through almost as many stages of the vegetative life in
six hours as an oak does in two hundred years : and
those animalculee that frisk into life in the morning of
a summer's day, propagate their species at noon, are old
at four o'clock, and dead at six, measure the length of
animal life as really as Methusaleh did his millennium.
SECTION II.
SAVING TRUTH IS THE OBJECT OF SAVING FAITH. WHAT
TRUTH IS, AND WHAT GREAT THINGS ARE SPOKEN OF IT.
OUR SALVATION TURNS UPON IT.
IT appears by the preceding section that saving
TRUTH is the ground and object of saving FAITH ;
but " what is TRUTH ?" This is the awful question
that Pilate once asked of Him who was best able to
answer it. But alas ! Pilate was in such haste through
the lying fear of man, that he did not stay for an
answer. May I venture- to give one? TRUTH is spi-
ritual substance, and a LIE spiritual shadow. TRUTH
is spiritual light, and a LIE spiritual darkness. Truth
is the root of all virtue, and a lie is the root of all vice.
Truth is the celestial tincture that makes spirits good,
and a lie the infernal tincture that makes them evil.
A lie is as nearly related to the devil as infection to one
that has the plague, or opacity to the jearth ; and truth
is as nearly related to God as fragrancy to burning in-
cense, and light to the unclouded sun.
According to this definition of truth and error, may
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
we not give plain and Scriptural answers to some of the
deepest questions in the world ? What is God 1 The
reverse of " the prince of darkness," and of the " father
of lies :" he is " the Father of lights," and " the God of
truth :" he " is light, and in him is no darkness at all."
What is Christ ? He is " the brightness of his Father's
glory ; a light a great light to them that dwell in the
shadow of death." He is " the truth ; the true witness ;
the truth itself; Emmanuel, God with us, full of grace
and truth." What is the Holy Ghost? " The Spirit
of truth :" yea, says St. John, " the Spirit is truth," and
" leads into all truth." What is Satan ? " The spirit
of error" that " abode not in the truth ; in whom there
is no truth," and who " deceives the nations which are
in the four quarters of the earth."
Again : what is the gospel ? " The word of truth,
the word of God, the word of faith, the word of the
kingdom, the word of life, and the word of salvation."
What are gospel ministers ? Men that " bear witness
to the truth ;" that " rightly divide the word of truth ;"
that are " fellow helpers to the truth ;" that " speak forth
the words of truth ;" and " are valiant for the truth upon
the earth." What is the preaching of the gospel ? " The
manifestation of the truth." What is it to believe the
gospel ? It is to " receive the knowledge of the truth ;"
to " receive the love of the truth ;" and to " obey the
truth." What is it to mistake the gospel ? It is to " err
from the truth ;" to " turn after fables ;" and to " give
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." What
is the church ? " The pillar and ground of truth, against
which the gates of hell shall not prevail." What is the
first fruit of sincere repentance ? " The acknowledging
of the truth." What are believers ? Persons that are
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 185
" chosen to salvation through the [unnecessitated] belief
of the truth ;" that " are of the truth ;" that " know the
truth ;" that have " the truth in their inward parts ;"
that have " a good report of the truth ; in whom dwells
the truth ; who have been taught the truth as it is in
Jesus ; in whom is the truth of Christ ; who have puri-
fied their souls by obeying the truth ;" and " walk in
the truth." What are unstable souls ? People " ever
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth," with' whom " the truth of the gospel does
not continue," and who are wilfully " bewitched, that
they should not obey the truth." What are obstinate
unbelievers 1 " Men of corrupt minds, destitute of the
truth ; unreasonable men," that " resist the truth ;" that
"glory and lie against the truth ;" that " walk in dark-
ness, and do not the truth." What are apostates? Men
that " sin wilfully after they have received the know-
ledge of the truth," and, instead of repenting, " count
the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sancti-
fied, an unholy thing." What are perfect men in
Christ? Men that are "established in the present
truth," i. e., in the truth revealed under the Christian
dispensation, and that can do nothing against the truth,
but for the truth.
If all turns thus upon TRUTH, and if truth is at once
spiritual light and the object of saving faith, it follows :
(1.) That to walk in the truth, to walk in the light,
and to walk by faith, are phrases of the same import.
(2.) That to be converted is to be " turned from dark-
ness to light," that is, from the practical belief of a lie
to the practical belief of the truth ;" or, as St. Paul
expresses it, "from the power of Satan unto God."
And, (3.) That the chief business of the tempter is to
186 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
" take the word of truth out of our hearts, lest we should
believe and be saved ;" or, in other terms, to " blind our
minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine unto us."
If Jesus Christ is the truth, the light, the life, and the
"Word that " was in the beginning with God, and was
God ;" the Word " by which all things were made" and
are preserved : if he is " the light that shineth in dark-
ness," even when the darkness comprehendeth it not :
if " he is the true light which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world," while the day of salvation lasts :
if he is the archetype, the eternal, living pattern of all
saving truth : if he is the essential, almighty Word,
from whom revealed truth and the word of our salva-
tion flow as constantly as light and heat from the sun :
do we not slight him, and despise eternal life, when we
slight the truth, and despise the Word 1 And may not
the great things spoken of the Word confirm what has
been said of the truth, and help us to answer the ques-
tions already proposed in a manner equally Scriptural
and conclusive?
Not forgetting that there is such a thing as " the
word nigh, the word behind" us, the " still small voice,"
and " the word of that grace which has appeared unto
all men, teaching them to deny worldly lusts, and to
live soberly," &c., I ask, What are evangelists ? Men
who " bear record of the word of God," and " bear wit-
ness of the light, that all men may believe." " Sowers,
that sow the word of the kingdom : holding forth the
word of life." What are false apostles? Men that
" corrupt the word of God," that " handle the word of
God deceitfully," and " preach another gospel ; whose
words eat as does a canker." What are believers?
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 187
People that " hear the word of God and keep it ;" that
are " begotten of God by the word of truth ;" that " are
born again by the word of God ;" that " hear the say-
ings of Christ, and do them ; in whose hearts the word
of Christ dwells richly ; who receive it not as the word
of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which
worketh effectually in them that believe" it. They are
persons that " receive with meekness the ingrafted
word, which is able to save their souls ;" that have
" tasted the good word of God," that " desire the sincere
milk of the word, that they may grow thereby ;" that
" gladly receive the word ; have God's word abiding in
them ;" are made " clean through the word which
Christ speaks" by his ministers, his Scriptures, his Spi-
rit, his works, or his rod ; and " in whom the seed of
that word produces" thirty fold, sixty fold, or a hundred
fold, according to their light, faithfulness, and oppor-
tunity.
Again: what are unbelievers? Antinomian hypo-
crites " that hear the sayings of Christ, and do them
not ;" or Pharisaic " despisers that stumble at the word,
speak against those things which are spoken by" God's
messengers; "contradicting and blaspheming;" and
who, by " putting the word of God from them, judge
themselves unworthy of eternal life." What are mar-
tyrs ? Witnesses of the truth ; " slain for the word of
God." And what are apostates? Persons in whom
" the word is choked by the cares of this world, or the
deceitfulness of riches ;" who " fall away when perse-
cution ariseth because of the word ; by reason of whom
the way of truth is evil spoken of;" and in whom the
seed of the word " becometh unfruitful." Thus all turns
still upon truth and the word of God.
188
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER XII.
THE SCRIPTURE SCALES.
SECTION I.
THREE PAIR OF GOSPEL AXIOMS, WHICH MAY BE CON-
SIDERED AS GOLDEN CHAINS, BY WHICH THE SCRIP-
TURE SCALES HANG ON THEIR BEAM.
I.
I. Every obedient be-
liever's salvation is origin-
ally of God's free grace.
II. God's free grace is
always the first cause of
what is good.
III. When God's free
grace has begun to work
moral GOOD, man may
faithfully follow him by
believing, ceasing to do
evil, and working right-
eousness, according to his
light and talent.
Thus is God the WISE
rewarder of them that
diligently seek him, ac-
cording to these words of
the apostle: "God. at the
revelation of his righteous
judgment, will render to
every man according to
his deeds; eternal life to
II.
I. Every unbeliever's
damnation is originally of
his own personal free will.
II. Man's free will is
always the first cause of
what is evil.
III. When man's free
will has begun to work
moralEviL, Godmay justly
follow him by withdraw-
ing his slighted grace, re-
vealing his deserved wrath,
and working natural evil.
Thus is God the RIGHT-
EOUS punisher of them
that obstinately neglect
him, according to such
scriptures as these : "Shall
not the Judge of all the
earth do right? Ye say,
The way of the Lord is
not equal: hear now, O ye
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 189
I. II.
them who by patient con- house of Israel, Is not my
tinuance in well doing seek way equal ? I will judge
for glory. Seeing it is a you every one after his
righteous thing with God way. Is God unright-
to recompense rest to them ecus, who taketh ven-
who are troubled" for his geance? God forbid! How
sake, to give them "a then shall God judge the
crown of righteousness" as world ? Thou art right-
a righteous Judge, and to eous, O Lord, &c., because
make them "walk with thou hast judged thus.
Christ in white, because Thou hast given them
they are worthy? (in a blood to drink, for they are
gracious and evangelical worthy? (in a strict and
sense.) legal sense.)
Hence it appears that God's design in the three
grand economies of man's creation, redemption, and
sanctification, is to display the riches of his FREE
GRACE AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE, by showing him-
self the bounteous Author of every good gift, and by
graciously rewarding the worthy: while he justly
punishes the unworthy according to their works, agree-
ably to these awful words of Christ and his prophets :
" For judgment I am come into this world. The Lord
hath made all things for himself; yea, even the [men
who to the last will remain] wicked, for the day of evil.
Because he hath appointed a day in which he will
judge the world in righteousness;" and to all the
wicked that day will be evil and terrible : " For be-
hold, the day cometh," says the Lord, " that shall burn
as an oven ; and all that do wickedly shall be as
stubble ; and the day that cometh shall burn them up,
says the Lord of hosts. But the righteous shall rejoice
190 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
when he seeth the vengeance : so that a man shall say,
Verily there is a REWARD for the righteous! Doubt-
less there is a God that JUDGETH THE EARTH !"
Upon this rational and Scriptural plan, may we not
solve a difficulty that has perplexed all the philosophers
in the world 1 " How can you," say they, " reasonably
account for the origin of evil without bearing hard
upon God's infinite goodness, power, or knowledge?
How can you make appear, not only that a good God
could create a world, where evil now exists in ten thou-
sand forms ; but also, that it was highly expedient he
should create such a world rather than any other ?"
ANSWER. When it pleased God to create a world,
his wisdom obliged him to create upon the plan that
was most worthy of him. Such a plan was undoubt-
edly that which agreed best with all the divine perfec-
tions taken together. Wisdom and power absolutely
required that it should be a world of rational, as well
as of irrational creatures ; of free as well as of neces-
sary agents ; such a world displaying far better what
St. Paul calls ooAvmu/uAof ao$ia, "the multifarious,
variegated wisdom of God," as well as his infinite
power in making, ruling, and overruling various orders
of beings.
It could not be expected that myriads of free agents,
who necessarily fell short of absolute perfection, would
all behave alike. Here God's goodness demanded that
those who behaved well should be rewarded ; his sove-
reignty insisted that those who behaved ill should be
punished ; and his distributive justice and equity re-
quired that those who made the best use of their talents
should be entitled to the highest rewards ; while those
who abused divine favours most should have the se-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 191
verest punishments ; mercy reserving to itself the right
of raising rewards and of alleviating punishments, in a
way suited to the honour of all the other divine attri-
butes.
This being granted, (and I do not see how any man
of reason and piety can deny it,) it evidently follows,
(1.) That a world, in which various orders of free as
well as of necessary agents are admitted, is most per-
fect. (2.) That this world, having been formed upon
such a wise plan, was the most perfect that could pos-
sibly be created. (3.) That in the very nature of things,
evil may, although there is no necessity it should, en-
ter into such a world : else it could not be a world of
free agents who are candidates for rewards offered by
distributive justice. (4.) That the blemishes and dis-
orders of the natural world are only penal consequences
of the disobedience of free agents. And (5.) That,
from such penal disorders we may indeed conclude that
man has abused free will, but not that God deals in
free wrath. Only admit, therefore, the free will of ra-
tionals, and you cannot.but fall in love with our Crea-
tor's plan ; dark and horrid as it appears when it is
viewed through the smoked glass of the fatalist, the
Manichee, or the rigid predestinarian.
SECTION II.
SETTING FORTH THE GLORY OF FAITH AND THE HONOUR
OF WORKS.
FIRST SCALE. SECOND SCALE.
Whosoever believeth on Then shall I not be
him [Christ] shall not ashamed, when I have re-
192
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
be ashamed, Rom. x,
11.
This is the work of GOD,
that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent, John
vi, 29.
Abraham believed God,
&c., and he was called the
friend of God, James ii,
23.
To him that worketh
not, but believeth, &c., his
faith is counted for right-
eousness, Rom. iv, 5.
If ye believe not that I
am he, ye shall die in
your sins, John viii, 24.
Only believe, [I particu-
larly require a strong exer-
tion of thy faith at this
time,] Luke viii, 50.
He that believelhon him
that sent me, hath ever-
lasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation ;
but is passed from death
unto life, John v, 24.
Thy faith hath SAVED
thee, Luke vii, 50.
Through faith they
wrought righteousness, ob-
II.
sped unto all thy com-
mandments, Psa. cxix, 6.
What does the Lord re-
quire of thee, but to do
justly, to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with thy
God, Micah vi, 8.
Ye are my friends, if
ye do whatsoever I com-
mand you, John xv, 14.
Faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone,
James ii, 17.
Brethren, &c., if ye live
after the flesh, ye shall die,
Rom. viii, 13.
The devils believe,[there-
fore faith is not sufficient
without its works,] James
ii, 19.
With the merciful thou
[O God] wilt show thyself
merciful : and with the fro-
ward thou wilt show thy-
self unsavoury, 2 Sam.
xxii, 26, 27.
We are SAVED by hope,
Rom. viii, 24.
Remembering, &c., your
labour of love let pa-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
tained promises, &c., Heb.
xi, 33.
With the heart man be-
lieveth to righteousness,
Rom. x, 10.
Received ye the Spirit by
the works of the law, or by
the hearing of faith ? Gal.
iii, 2.
Through his name, who-
soever believeth on him
shall receive remission of
sins, Acts x, 43.
If Abraham were justi-
fied by WORKS, he hath
whereof to glory, Rom. iv, 2.
Without FAITH it is im-
possible to please God, Heb.
xi, 6.
They that are of faith
are blessed with faithful
Abraham, Gal. iii, 9.
To them that are unbe-
lieving is NOTHING PURE,
Tit. i, 15.
Believe in the Lord,
193
II.
tience have her perfect
work, 1 Thess. i, 3 ; James
And with the mouth
confession is made to sal
vation. (Ibid.}
I know thy works, that
thou art neither cold nor
hot, &c., so then, &c., I
will spew thee out of
my mouth, Rev. iii, 15,
16.
Forgive, and ye shall
be forgiven. If we con-
fess our sins, he is faith-
ful and just to forgive us,
Luke vi, 37; 1 John i, 9.
Was not Abraham our
father justified by WORKS ?
James ii, 21.
O vain man, faith with-
out WORKS is dead, James
ii, 20.
If ye were Abraham's
children, ye would do the
works of Abraham, John
viii, 39.
Give alms, <fcc., and
behold ALL THINGS are
CLEAN unto /ou, Luke xi,
41.
If thou doest well, shalt
194
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
&c., so shall you be es-
tablished, 2 Chron. xx,
20.
To the praise of the
glory of his grace, &c., he
hath made us accepted in
the beloved, Eph. i, 6.
Hive by FAITH in the
Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me,
Gal. ii, 20.
Phil, i, 21.
THIS [Christ] is the true
God. and eternal life, 1
John v, 20.
This is eternal life, to
know thee, &c., and Jesus
Christ, John xvii, 3.
He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life,
John iii, 36.
Israel, which followed
after the law of righteous-
ness, hath not attained to
the law of righteousness.
Wherefore ? Because they
sought it not by faith, but
as it were by the works of
the law [opposed to Christ;]
II.
not thou be accepted ?
Gen. iv, 7.
In every nation he that
feareth God, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted
with him. Acts x, 35.
If ye, through the Spirit,
MORTIFY the deeds of the
body, ye shall live, Rom.
viii, 13.
KEEP my command-
ments and live, Prov. iv,
4.
His [my Father's] COM-
MANDMENT is life ever-
lasting, John xii, 50.
Though I have all
knowledge, &c., and have
not charity, I am nothing,
1 Cor. xiii, 2.
And he that [<wrei0et] dis-
obeyeth the Son, shall not
see life. (Ibid.)
If any man among
you, &c., bridleth not his
tongue, &c., this man's re-
ligion is vain. Pure reli-
gion and undefiled before
God is this: to visit the
fatherless and widows in
their affliction, and to keep
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
195
I.
II.
for they stumbled at that
stumbling stone, Rom. ix,
31, 32.
Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed [or
counted] to him for right-
eousness, Rom. iv, 3.
Trust [i. e., believe] ye
in the Lord for ever; for
in the Lord Jehovah is
everlasting strength, Isa.
xxvi, 4.
He that believeth on
him is not condemned, but
he that believeth not is
condemned already, John
iii, 18.
Be it known unto you
that through this man is
preached unto you the for-
giveness of sins ; and by
him all that believe are
JUSTIFIED, Acts xiii, 38,
39.
We have believed in
Jesus Christ that we might
be JUSTIFIED [as sinners]
by the faith of Christ,
Gal. ii, 16.
himself unspotted from the
world, James i, 26, 27.
Phinehas executed judg-
ment, and that was count-
ed [or imputed] unto him
for righteousness for ever-
more, Psa. cvi, 30, 31.
If I regard iniquity in
my heart, the Lord will
not hear me. If our heart
condemn us not, then have
we confidence toward God,
Psa. Ixvi, 18 ; 1 John iii, 21.
He that humbleth him-
self shall be exalted, and
every one that exalteth
himself shall be abased,
Luke xiv, 11.
The doers of the law
[of faith] shall be JUSTI-
FIED, in the day when
God shall judge the secrets
of men, &c., according to
my gospel, Rom. ii, 13, 16.
In the day of judgment
by thy words thou shall
be JUSTIFIED, and by thy
words thou shalt be con-
demned, Matt, xii, 36, 37.
The balance of the preceding scriptures shows that
196
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
PATIH, and the works of faith, are equally necessary
to the salvation of adults. Faith, for their justification
as sinners, in the day of CONVERSION ; and the works
of faith, for their justification as believers, both in the
day of TRIAL and of JUDGMENT. Hence it follows,
that when Zelotes preaches mere Sblifidianism, and
when Honestus enforces mere 'morality, they both
grossly mangle Bible Christianity, which every real
Protestant is bound to defend against all Antinomian
and Pharisaic innovators.
SECTION III.
SHOWING WHAT IS GOD*S WORK, AND WHAT IS OUR OWN ;
HOW CHRIST SAVES US, AND HOW WE WORK OUT OUR
OWN SALVATION.
FIRST SCALE.
Containing the weights of
FREE GRACE.
The hour is coming and
now is, when the dead
shall hear the voice of the
Son of God ; and they that
hear shall live, John v, 25.
I am come, that they
might have LIFE, and that
they might have it more
abundantly, John x, 10.
You hath he quickened,
who were dead in tres-
passes and sins, Eph. ii, 1.
You being dead in your
SECOND SCALE.
Containing the weights of
FREE WILL.
Awake, thou that sleep-
est, arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee
light, Eph. v, 14.
Except ye eat the flesh
of the Son of man, &c., ye
have no LIFE in you, John
vi, 53.
Ye will not come unto
me, that ye might have
life, John v, 40.
Thou hast a name that
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
197
I.
II.
sins, &c., hath he quicken-
ed together with him, Col.
ii, 13.
Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God, John
iii, 3.
The wind bloweth where
it listeth, &c., so is every
one that is born of the
Spirit, John iii, 8.
Being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but,
&c., by* the word of God ;
thou livest, and art dead,
&c. Strengthen the things
that remain, and are ready
to die, Rev. iii, 1, 2.
Every one that loveth
every one that does right-
eousness, is born of God,
1 John iv, 7 ; ii, 29.
Humble yourselves un-
der the mighty hand of
God, that he may exalt
you. For God resisteth
the proud, and giveth
grace to the humble, 1
Pet. v, 6, 5,
Wherefore, &c., lay
apart all filthiness, &c.,
and receive* &c., the in
* How mistaken were the divines that composed the synod of
Dort, when, speaking of regeneration, they said, without any dis-
tinction, (Illam Deus in nobis sine nobis operatur,) " God works i*
in us without us !" Just as if God believed in us without us ! Jus*
as if we received the word without our receiving of it ! Just as if
the sower and the sun produced corn without the field that bears it !
What led them into this mistake was, no doubt, a commendable
desire to maintain the honour of free grace. However, if by rege.
neration they meant the firat communication of that fructifying,
" saving grace, which has appeared to all men" the first visit, or
the first implanting of " that light of life, which enlightens every man
that cometh into the world," they spoke a precious truth : for God
bestows this free gift upon us, absolutely " without us !" Nor could
we ever do what he requires of us in the scale of free will, if he had
not first given us a talent of grace, and if he did not continually help
us to use it aright when we have a good will.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
and this is the word, which
by the gospel is preached
unto you, 1 Pet. i, 23, 25.
Of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth,
James i, 18.
Christ our passover is
sacrificed for us, 1 Cor.
vi,7.
II.
grafted word, James i, 19,
21. Whosoever believeth,
&c., is born of God, [ac-
cording to his dispensa-
tion,] 1 John v, 1. As
many as received him, to
them [of his own gracious
will] gave he power to be-
come the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his
name, John i, 12. For ye
are all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus.
Faith cometh by hearing;
[which is our work,] Gal.
iii, 26 ; Rom. x, 17. They
[the Bereans] received the
word with all readiness of
mind, and searched the
Scriptures daily, whether
those things were so; there-
fore many of them believ-
ed ; [i. e., received " the
ingrafted word," and by
that means were " born
again" according to the
Christian dispensation ;]
Acts xvii, 11, 12.
Purge out the old lea-
ven [of wickedness] that
ye may be a new lump.
(Ibid.)
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
199
I.
II.
The blood of Christ
cleanseth us from all sin,
1 John i, 7.
By one offering he hath
perfected for ever [in aton-
ing merits] them that are
sanctified, Heb. x, 14.
He by himself purged
our sins. Of the people
there was none with him,
Heb. i, 3 ; Isaiah Ixiii, 3.
[Here the incommunicable
glory of making a proper
atonement for sin is se-
cured to our Lord.]
He put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself,
Heb. ix, 26.
Ye are sanctified, &c.,
in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of
our God, 1 Cor. vi, 11.
Surely one shall say, In
[or through} the Lord
have I righteousness and
strength, Isa. xlv, 24.
Cleanse your hands, ye
sinners ; and purify your
hearts, ye double-minded,
James iv, 8.
Let us go on unto per-
fection. This one thing
I do, &c. I press toward
the mark, Heb. vi, 1 ; Phil,
iii, 13.
Ye have purified your
souls in obeying the truth.
Verily I have cleansed my
heart in vain, and washed
my hands in innocency.
[The word in vain refers
only to a temptation of
David when he " saw the
prosperity of the wicked,"]
1 Pet. i, 22 ; Psa. Ixxiii, 13.
Put away the evil of
your doing from before
mine eyes, Isa. i, 16.
If a man purge him-
self from these, he shall
be a vessel unto honour,
sanctified, and meet for
the Master's use, 2 Tim.
ii, 21.
In every nation he that
worketh righteousness is
accepted of Him, Acts x,
35.
200
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
1.
II.
I will make mention of
thy righteousness, even
of thine only, &c. My
mouth shall show forth
thy righteousness, and
thy salvation all the day,
Psa. Ixxi, 15, 16.
My righteousness is
near, my salvation is gone
forth, Isa. li, 5.
I bring near my right-
eousness, it shall not be
far off; and my salvation
shall not tarry, Isa. xlvi }
13.
God sent his Son Jesus
to bless you, in turning,
<fec., you from your iniqui-
ties, Acts iii, 26.
Him [Christ] hath God
exalted to give repentance
to Israel, and forgiveness
of sins, Acts v, 31.
Be it known unto you,
that through this man
[Christ] is preached unto
you the forgiveness of
sins, Acts xxxi, 38.
Not by works of right-
Then [when thou deal-
est thy bread to the hungry,
bringest the poor to thy
house, &c.,] then shall thy
righteousness go before
thee, and the glory of the
Lord shall be thy rereward,
Isa. Iviii, 8.
Whosoever does not
righteousness is not of
God, 1 John iii, 10.
The Lord rewarded me
[David] according to my
righteousness, according
to the cleanness of my
hands, 2 Sam. xxii, 21.
I thought on my ways,
and turned my feet unto
thy testimonies. I made
haste, and delayed not to
keep thy commandments,
Psa. cxix, 59, 60.
Repent ye, therefore,
and be converted, that
your sins may be blotted
out, Acts iii, 19.
Arise : why tarriest
thou? Wash away thy
sins; calling upon the
name of the Lord, Acts
xxii, 16.
Except your righteous-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
201
I.
II.
eousness which we have
done ; but of his mercy he
saved us, Tit. iii, 5.
And this is the name
whereby he shall be called,
The Lord our righteous-
ness, Jer. xxiii, 6.
Them that have obtain-
ed like precious faith with
us, through the righteous-
ness of God and our Sa-
viour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet.
CHRIST is made unto
us of God, &c., righteous-
nes^s, 1 Cor. i, 30.
Even for mine own sake
will I do it, Isa. xlviii, 11.
No man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by
the Holy Ghost the Spi-
rit of faith, 1 Cor. xii, 3 ;
2 Cor. iv, 13.
I will put my Spirit
within you, Ezek. xxxvi,
27. I will pour out of my
Spirit upon all flesh, Acts
ii, 17.
ness exceed the righteous-
ness of the scribes, ye shall
in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven, Matt,
v, 20.
He that does righteous-
ness is righteous, even as
he [Christ] is righteous,
1 John iii, 7.
Though Noah, Daniel,
and Job were in it, [the
place about to be destroy-
ed,] they should deliver
but their own souls by
their righteousness , Ezekr.
xiv, 14.
The righteousness of
the RIGHTEOUS shall be
upon him, Ezek. xviii, 20.
/ will for this be in-
quired of, &c., to do it for
them, Ezek. xxxvi, 37.
Your heavenly Father
will give his Holy Spirit
to them that ask him to
them that obey him, Luke
xi, 13 ; Acts x, 32.
Repent and be baptized,
&c., [or stand to your bap-
tismal vow,] and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost, Acts ii, 38.
9*
202
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
II.
Hear me, O Lord, that
this people may know, &c.,
that thouhast turnedtheir
heart back again, 1 Kings
xviii, 37.
A new heart will I give
you,&c. I \ri\ltake away
the stony heart, &c., and I
will give you a heart of
flesh, Ezek. xxxvi, 26.
The preparation of the
heart in man is from the
Lord. Thou wilt prepare
their heart, [the heart of
the humble,] Prov. xvi, 1 ;
Psa. x, 17.
The Lord will give
grace and glory, Psalm
Ixxxiv, 11.
Exceeding great and pre-
cious promises are given
us; that by these you might
be partakers of the divine
nature, 2 Pet. i, 4.
Come, for all things are
now ready, Luke xiv, 17.
The Lord will wait to
be gracious, Isa. xxx, 18.
Be not dismayed, for
Take with you words,
and turn to the Lord.
Turn ye even to me with
all your heart, Hos. xiv,
2 ; Joel ii, 12.
Harden not your heart :
rend your heart : make
you a new heart, for why
will ye die ? Psa. xcv, 8 ;
Joel ii, 13 ; Ezek. xviii, 31.
Nevertheless, there are
good things found in thee,
in that, &c., thou hasf pre-
pared thine heart to seek
God, 2 Chron. xix, 3.
No good thing will he
withhold from them that
walk uprightly. (Ibid.)
Having therefore these
promises, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthi-
ness of the flesh and spirit,
2 Cor. vii, 1.
The Lamb's wife hath
made herself ready. Be
ye also ready, Rev. xix,
7 ; Matt, xxiv, 44.
Wait on the Lord, &c. :
wait, I say, on the Lord,
Psa. xxvii, 14.
David encouraged him-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
203
I.
II.
self in his God, 1 Sam.
xxx, 6. They that wait
on the Lord shall renew
their strength, Isa. xl, 31.
Cursed is the man that
maketh flesh his arm,
Jer. xvii, 5. Cast thy bur-
den upon the Lord, and
he will sustain thee, Psa.
Iv, 22.
Wash ye, make you
clean, Isa. i, 16. O Jeru-
salem, wash thy heart
from wickedness, that thou
mayest be saved, Jer. iv,
14.
Keep thyself pure, 1
Tim. v, 22. Keep thy
heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues
of life, Prov. iv, 23.
What does the Lord re-
quire of thee but, &c., to
walk humbly with thy
God? Micah vi, 8. And
Enoch* set himself to
walk with God, Gen. v,
24.
* The word in the original i3 in the conjugation Hithpahel, which
signifies to cause one's self to do a thing. Our translation does not
do it justice. Nor can Zelotes reasonably object to the meaning of
the word used by Moses, unless he can prove that Enoch had no
I am thy God; I will
strengthen thee, Isa. xli,
10.
Yea, I will uphold thee
with the right hand of my
righteousness, Isa. xli, 10.
/ will sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye
shall be clean : from all
your filthiness, and from
all your idols will I cleanse
you, Ezek. xxxvi, 25.
I the Lord do keep it
[the spiritual vineyard] lest
any hurt it. I will keep it
night and day, Isa. xxvii,
3.
I will give them a heart
of flesh, that they may
walk in my statutes, Ezek.
xi, 20.
204
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
II.
David my servant shall
be king over them ; and,
&c., they shall walk in
my judgments, Ezekiel
xxxvii, 24.
For we are his work-
manship, created in Christ
Jesus unto the good works
which God [by his word
of command, by providen-
tial occurrences, and by
secret intimations of his
will, npoT)Toinaae] hath be-
fore prepared, that we
should walk in them, Eph.
ii, 10.
God hath saved us, and
called us with a holy CALL-
ING ; not according to our
works, but according to his
own purpose and grace,
which was given us in
Christ before the world be-
gan, 2 Tim. i, 9.
He that saith he abideth
in him, [God manifested
in the flesh,] ought him-
self also so to walk, even
as he walked, 1 John ii, 6.
And as many as walk
according to this rule, peace
be on them and mercy,
Gal. vi, 16. That they
might set their hope in
God, <fcc., and not be as
their fathers, a stubborn
generation, (fee., that set
not their heart aright,
&c., and refused to walk
in his law. But as for me,
I will loalk in mine in-
tegrity, Psa. Ixxviii, 7, 10 ;
xxvi, 11.
The grace of God, that
bringeth salvation, hath
appeared unto all men,
teaching us that we should
live soberly, <fec. Give
diligence to make your
CALLING sure. How shall
we escape if we neglect so
hand, and no foot, in his walking with God ; and that God dragged
him as if he had been a passive cart, or a recoiling cannon. How-
ever, I readily grant that Enoch did not set himself to walk with God
without the help of that " saving grace which has appeared to all
men," and which so many " receive in vain."
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
205
I.
II.
I will give them a heart
to know me, that I am the
Lord, Jer. xxiv, 7.
I will put my fear in
their hearts, Jer. xxxii, 40.
The Lord thy God will
circumcise thine heart,
Deut. xxx, 6.
/ will put my law in
their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts,
Jer. xxxi, 33.
We love him, because
he first loved us, 1 John
iv, 19.
By grace ye are SAVED,
through faith; and that
not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, Eph. ii, 8.
It is of faith, that it might
be by grace, Rom. iv, 16.
Not for thy righteous-
great salvation? Titus ii,
11,12; 2 Pet. i, 10; Heb.
ii, 3.
Then shall we know,
if we follow on to know
the Lord, Hos. vi, 3.
They shall not find me,
<fcc., for that they did not
choose the fear of the
Lord, Prov. i, 29.
Circumcise, therefore,
the foreskin of your heart,
Deut. x, 16.
Let every man be swift
to hear, &c. Receive with
meekness the ingrafted
word, which is able to save
your souls, James i, 19, 21.
Thy word have I hid in
my heart, Psa. cxix, 11.
The Father loveth you,
because ye have believed,
John xvi, 27.
Believe, &c., and thou
shall be SAVED, Acts xvi,
31. Receive not the grace
of God in vain, 2 Cor. vi,
1 . Looking- diligently lest
any man fail of [or be
wanting to] the grace of
God, Heb. xii, 15.
Inherit the kingdom,
206
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
II.
ness, &c., dost thou go
and possess their land,
Deut. ix 3 5.
Not of works, lest any
man should boast, Eph.
ii, 9.
Thou hast hid those
things from the wise and
prudent, [in their own
eyes,] and revealed them
unto babes, Luke x, 21.
&c., for I was hungry, and
ye gave me meat, &c.,
Matt, xxv, 34.
Charge them, &c., to
do good, &c., that they
may lay hold on eternal
life, 1 Tim. vi, 17, &c.
Who is wise, and he
shall understand these
things? prudent, and he
shall know them? Hos.
xiv, 9. None of the wick-
ed shall understand, but
the wise shall understand,
Dan. xii, 10.
If I am not mistaken, the balance of the preceding
scriptures shows that Pharisaism and Antinomianism
are equally unscriptural ; the harmonious opposition of
those passages evincing, (1.) That our free will is
subordinately a worker with God's free grace in every
thing but a proper atonement for sin, and the first
implanting of the light which enlightens every man
that comes into the world : such an atonement having
been fully completed by Chris? s blood, and such an
implanting being entirely performed by his Spirit.
(2.) That Honestus is most dreadfully mistaken, when
he makes next to nothing of free grace and her works.
(3.) That Zelotes obtrudes a most dangerous paradox
upon the simple, when he preaches finished salvation
in the Crispian sense of the word. And, (4.) That
St. Paul speaks as the oracles of God, when he says,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 207
" God worketh in you, &c., therefore work ye out your
own salvation."
CHAPTER XIII.
A RATIONAL AND SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF ST. PAUL'S
MEANING IN THE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE EPIS-
TLE TO THE ROMANS.
REASON and conscience should alone, one would
think, convince us that St. Paul, in Rom. ix, does not
plead for a right in God so to hate any of his un-
formed creatures as to intend, make, and fit them for
destruction, merely to show his absolute sovereignty
and irresistible power. The apostle knew too well
the God of love to represent him as a mighty pot-
ter, who takes an unaccountable pleasure to form ra-
tional vessels, and to endue them with keen sensibility,
only to have the glory of absolutely filling them, by the
help of Adam, with sin and wickedness on earth, and
then with fire and brimstone in hell. This is the con-
ceit of the consistent admirers of unconditional election
and rejection, who build it chiefly upon Rom. ix.
Should you ask why they fix so dreadful a meaning on
that portion of Scripture, I answer, that through inat-
tention and prejudice they overlook the two keys which
the apostle gives us to open his meaning, one of which
we find in the first three, and the other in the last three
verses of that perverted chapter.
In the first three verses St. Paul expresses the "continual
sorrow" which he "had in his heart" for the obstinacy of
his countrymen, the Jews, who so depended upon their
national prerogatives, as Jews ; their church privileges,
208 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
as children of Abraham ; and their Pharisaic right-
eousness of the law, as observers of the Mosaic ceremo-
nies, that they detested the doctrine of salvation by faith
in Jesus Christ. Now, if the apostle had believed that
God, by a wise decree of preterition, had irreversibly
ordained them to eternal death " to illustrate his glory by
their damnation," as Calvin says, how ridiculous would
it have been in him to sorrow night and day about the
execution of God's wise design ! If God, from the be-
ginning of the world, had absolutely determined to make
the unbelieving Jews personally and absolutely vessels
of wrath, to the praise of the glory of his sovereign free
wrath, how wicked would it have been in St. Paul to
begin the next chapter by saying, " My heart's desire
and prayer to God for unbelieving Israel, for the ob-
stinate Jews, is that they might be saved !" Would he
not rather have meekly submitted to the will of God,
and said, like Eli, " It is the Lord : let him do what
seemeth him good ?" Did it become him nay, was it
not next to rebellion in him, so passionately to set his
heart against a decree made (as we are told) on purpose
to display the absoluteness of divine sovereignty? And
would not the Jews have retorted his own words !
" Who art thou, O vain man, that repliest against God"
by wishing night and day the salvation of " vessels of
wrath :" of men whom he hath absolutely set apart for
destruction ?
" But if the apostle did not intend to establish the
absolute, personal preterition of the rejected Jews and
their fellow reprobates, what could he mean by that
mysterious chapter ?" I reply : He meant in general
to vindicate God's conduct in casting off the Jews, and
adopting the Gentiles. This deserves some explana-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 209
tion. When St. Paul insinuated to the Jews that they
were rejected as a church and people, and that the un-
circumcised Gentiles (even as many as believed on Jesus
of Nazareth) were now the chosen nation, " the pecu-
liar people," and church of God, his countrymen were
greatly offended : and yet, as " the apostle of the Gen-
tiles," to " provoke the Jews to jealousy," he was obliged
peculiarly to enforce this doctrine among them. They
generally gave him audience till he touched upon it.
But when he " waxed bold," and told them plainly that
Christ had bid him " depart from Jerusalem," as from
an accursed city ; and had " sent him far thence unto
the Gentiles," they could contain themselves no longer ;
and " lifting up their voices, they said, Away with such
a fellow from the earth," Acts xiii, 46 ; xxii, 21.*
When St. Paul wrote to Rome, the metropolis of the
Gentile world, where there were a great many Jews,
the Holy Ghost directed him to clear up the question
concerning the general election of the Gentiles, and the
general rejection of the Jews. And this he did, both
for the comfort of the humble, Gentile believers, and for
* It is remarkable that Jewish rage first broke out against our
Lord when he touched their great Diana the doctrine of their ab-
solute election. You think, said he, to be saved, merely because
you are Abraham's children, and God's chosen, peculiar people.
" But I tell you of a truth," God is not so partial to Israel as you
suppose. " Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, but to
none of them was Elias sent, but to a Zidonian [heathen] widow.
And many lepers were in Israel in the days of Elisha, yet none of
them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian," Luke iv, 25, &c. The
Jews never forgave our Lord that levelling saying. If he narrowly
escaped their fury at Na/areth, it was only to meet it increased se.
venfold in the holy city. So fierce and implacable are the tempers to
which some professors work up themselves, by drinking into un.
scriptural notions of election !
210 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
the humiliation of his proud, self-elected countrymen ;
that, being provoked to jealousy, they, or at least some
of them, might with the Gentiles make their personal
calling and election sure by believing in Christ. As the
Jews were generally incensed against him, and he had
a most disagreeable truth to write, he dips his pen in
the oil of brotherly love, and begins the chapter by a most
awful protestation of his tender attachment to them, and
sorrowful concern for their salvation, hoping that this
would soften them, and reconcile their prejudiced minds.
But if he had represented them as absolute reprobates,
and vessels of wrath irreversibly ordained of God to
destruction, he would absurdly have defeated his own
design, and exasperated them more than ever against
his doctrine and his person. To suppose that he told
them with one breath, he wished to be accursed from
Christ for them, and with the next breath insinuated
that God had absolutely accursed them with uncondi-
tional, personal reprobation, is a notion so excessively
big with absurdity, that at times Zelotes himself can
scarcely swallow it down. Who indeed can believe
that St. Paul made himself so ridiculous as to weep tears
of the most ardent love over the free wrath of his rep-
robating Creator ? Who can imagine that the pious
apostle painted out " the God of all grace," as a God
full of immortal hatred to most of his countrymen :
while he represented himself as a person continually
racked with the tenderest feelings of a matchless affec-
tion for them all ; thus impiously raising his own repu-
tation, as a benevolent man, upon the ruins of the
reputation of his malevolent God ?
Come we now to the middle part of the chapter. St.
Paul, having prepared the Jews for the disagreeable
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 211
message which he was about to deliver, begins to at-
tack their Pharisaic prejudices concerning their absolute
right, as children of Abraham, to be God's church and
people, exclusively of the rest of the world, whom they
looked upon as reprobated dogs of the Gentiles. To
drive the unbelieving Jews out of this sheltering place,
he indirectly advances two doctrines : (1.) That God,
as the Creator and supreme Benefactor of men, may do
what he pleases with his peculiar favours ; and that
he had now as indubitable a right freely to give five
talents of church privileges to the Gentiles, as he had
once to bestow three talents of church privileges upon
the Jews. And, (2.) That God had as much right to
set the seal of his wrath upon them, as upon Pharaoh
himself, if they continued to imitate the inflexibleness
of that proud unbeliever ; inexorable unbelief being the
sin that Jits men for destruction, and pulls down the
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
The first of those doctrines he proves by a reasona-
ble appeal to conscience: (1.) Concerning the absurdity
of replying against God, i. e., against a being of in-
finite wisdom, goodness, justice, and power. And
(2.) Concerning a right which a potter has of the
same " lump of clay" to make one vessel for* honoura-
* I have lived these fifteen years in a part of England where a
multitude of potters make all manner of iron and earthen vessels.
Some of these mechanics are by no means conspicuous for good
sense, and others are at times besotted through excessive drinking ;
but I never yet saw or heard of one so excessively foolish as to
make, even in a drunken fit, a vessel on purpose to break it, to
show that he had power over the work of his own hands. Such,
however, is the folly that Zelotes' scheme imputes to God. Nay,
if a potter makes vessels on purpose to break them, he is only a
fool ; but if he could make sensible vessels like dogs, and formed
them on purpose to roast them alive, and that he might show his
212 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
ble, and another for comparatively dishonourable uses.
The argument carries conviction along with it. Were
utensils capable of thought, the basin, in which our
Lord washed his disciples' feet, (a comparatively dis-
honourable use,) could never reasonably complain that
the potter had not made it the cup in which Christ con-
secrated the sacramental wine. By a parity of reason,
the king's soldiers and servants cannot justly be dis-
satisfied because he has not made them all generals
and prime ministers. And what reason had the Jews
to complain that God put the Gentiles on a level with,
or even above them ? May he not, without being ar-
raigned at the bar of slothful servants, who have buried
their talents, give a peculiar, extraordinary blessing
when he pleases, and to whom he pleases ? " Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why
hast thou made me thus ?" Shall the foot say. Why
am I not the head ? and the knee, Why am I not the
shoulder ? Or, to allude to the parable of the labour-
ers, If God chooses to hire the Gentiles, and send them
into his favourite vineyard, blessing them with church
privileges as he did the Jews ; shall the eye of the Jews
" be evil because God is good" to these newly hired la-
bourers ?" " May he not do what he pleases with his
own?"
To this rational argument St. Paul adds another (ad
hominem) peculiarly adapted to the Jews, who supposed
it a kind of sacrilege to deny that, as children of Abra-
sovereign power, would you not execrate his cruelty as much as you
would pity his madness ? But, what would you think of the man if
he made five or ten such vessels for absolute destruction, while he
made one for absolute salvation, and then assumed the title of gra-
cious and merciful potter, and called his potting schemes " schemes
of grace ?"
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 213
ham, they were absolutely the chosen nation," and
" the temple of the Lord." To convince them that God
was not so partial to the posterity of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, as they imagined, the apostle reminds them
that God had excluded the first-born of those favoured
patriarchs from the peculiar blessings which by birth-
right belonged to them : doing it sometimes on account
of the sin of those first-born, and sometimes previously
to any personal demerit of theirs, that he might show
that his purpose, according to election to peculiar privi-
leges and church prerogatives, does "not stand of works,
but of him that" chooseth, and "calleth" of his sove-
reign, distinguishing grace. St. Paul confirms this part
of his doctrine by the instance of Ishmael and Isaac,
who were both sons of Abraham: God having preferred
Isaac to Ishmael, because Isaac was the child of his
own promise, and of Abraham's faith by Sarah, a free
woman, who was a type of grace and the gospel of
Christ: whereas Ishmael was only the child of Abra-
ham's natural strength by Agar, an Egyptian bonds-
woman, who was a type of nature and the Mosaic
dispensation.
With peculiar wisdom the apostle dwells upon the still
more striking instance of Isaac's sons, Esau and Jacob,
who had not only the same godly father, but the same
free and pious mother ; the younger of whom was nev-
ertheless preferred to the elder without any apparent
reason. He leaves the Jews to think how much more
this might be the case when there is an apparent cause,
as in the case of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, Jacob's
three eldest sons, who, through incest, treachery, and
murder, forfeited the blessing of the first born ; a bless-
ing this which by that forfeiture devolved on Judah,
214 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
Jacob's fourth son, whose tribe became the first and
most powerful of all the tribes of Israel, and had of
consequence the honour of producing the Messiah, " the
Lion of the tribe of Judah." St. Paul's argument is
masterly, and runs thus : If God has again and again
excluded some of Abraham's posterity from the blessing
of the peculiar covenant, which he made with that pa-
triarch concerning the "promised seed;" if he said,
i In Isaac," Jacob, and Judah, "shall thy seed [the
Messiah] be called," and not in Ishmael, Esau, and
Reuben, the first-born sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Ja-
cob; how absurd is it in the Jews to suppose that
merely because they are descended from Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, they shall absolutely share the bless-
ings of the Messiah's kingdom ? If God excluded from
the birthright Ishmael the scoffer, Esau the seller of his
birthright, and Reuben the defiler of Bilhah, his father's
wife, why might not Israel, (his son called out of
Egypt,) his first-born among nations, forfeit his birth-
right through unbelief? And why should not the Gen-
tile world, God's prodigal son, inherit the blessing of the
first-born, if they submitted to the obedience of faith,
and, with the younger son in the parable, returned from
" the far country" to their father's house ; while the
elder son insolently quarrelled with God, reproached his
brother, absolutely refused to come in, and thus made
his calling void, and his reprobation sure ?
The apostle's argument is like a two-edged sword.
With one edge he cuts down the bigotry of the Jews,
by the above-mentioned appeals to the history of their
forefathers ; and with the other edge he strikes at their
unbelief, by an appeal to the destruction of Pharaoh ;
insinuating that God as Maker, Preserver, and Go-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 216
vernor of men, has an undoubted right to fix the gra-
cious or righteous terms on which he will finally
bestow salvation, or inflict damnation on his rational
creatures.
With the greatest propriety St. Paul brings in Pha-
raoh, to illustrate the odious nature, fatal consequences,
and dreadful punishment of unbelief. No example was
better known, or could be more striking to the Jews.
They had been taught from their infancy, with how
" much long-suffering" God had " endured" that noto-
rious unbeliever; "raising him up," supporting him,
and bearing with his insolence day after day, even after
he had fitted himself for destruction. They had been
informed that the Lord had often reprieved that father
of the faithless, that, in case he again and again
hardened himself, (as Omniscience saw he would do,)
he might be again and again scourged, till the madness
of his infidelity should drive him into the very jaws of
destruction ; God having on purpose spared him, yea,*
" raised him up" after every plague, that if he refused
to yield, he might be made a more conspicuous monu-
ment of divine vengeance, and be more gloriously over-
thrown by matchless power. So should " God's name,"
* Is it not strange that Zelotes should infer, from this expression,
that God had originally " raised up," that is, created Pharaoh, on
purpose to damn him ? Is it not evident that Pharaoh justly looked
upon every plague as a death ? Witness his own words, " Intreat
the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only,"
Exod. x, 17. And if every plague was a death to Pharaoh, was not
every removal of a plague a kind of resurrection, a raising him up,
together with his kingdom, from a state of destruction, according to
these words of the Egyptians, " Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is
destroyed ?" How reasonable and Scriptural is this sense ! How
dreadful, I had almost said, how diabolical, is that of Zelotes !
216 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
i. e.j his adorable perfections and righteous proceedings,
" be declared throughout all the earth." And so should
unbelief appear to all the world in its own odious and
infernal colours.
St. Paul having thus indirectly, and with his usual
prudence and brevity, given a double stab to the bigotry
of the unbelieving Jews, who fancied themselves uncon-
ditionally elected, and whom he had represented as
conditionally reprobated ; lest they should mistake his
meaning as Zelotes does, he concludes the chapter thus :
" What shall we say then ?" What is the inference
which I draw from the preceding arguments? One
which is obvious, namely, this : " That the Gentiles,
[typified by Jacob the younger brother,] who followed
not professedly after righteousness, have attained to
righteousness, even the Christian righteousness which
is of faith. But Israel," or the Jews, who professedly
" followed after the law of Mosaic righteousness, [as
the sportsman Esau did after his game,] have not at-
tained to the law of Mosaic or Christian righteous-
ness :" they are neither justified as Jews, nor sanctified
as Christians. " True ; and the reason is, because God
had absolutely passed them by from all eternity, that
he might in time make them vessels of wrath fitted for
destruction." So insinuates Zelotes. But happily for
the honour of the gospel, St. Paul declares just the re-
verse. " Wherefore," says he, " did not the reprobated
Jews attain to righteousness?" To open the eyes of
Zelotes, if any thing will, he answers his own question
thus : " Because they sought it not by faith, but as it
were by the external works of the Mosaic law" opposed
to Christian faith. " For they stumbled at that stum-
bling stone," Christ, who is " a rock of offence" to un-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 217
believers, and " the rock of ages" to believers. As it is
written, Behold I lay in Zion a rock," that some shall,
through their obstinate unbelief, make " a rock of of-
fence." And others, through their humble faith, a
rocky foundation, according to the decrees of condi-
tional reprobation and election : " He that believeth not
shall be damned, and whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed," Rom. ix, 1-33 ; Mark xvi, 16.
That Zelotes should mistake the apostle's meaning,
when it is so clearly fixed in the latter part of the
phapter, is unaccountable : but that he should support
by it his peculiar notion of absolute reprobation is really
astonishing. The unbelieving Jews are undoubtedly
the persons whom the apostle had first in view when
he asserted God's right of appointing that obstinate un-
believers shall be " vessels of wrath." But hear what
he said of those REPROBATED JEWS to the ELECTED
Gentiles, in the very next chapter but one. " I speak
to you Gentiles, (fee., if by any means I may provoke
to emulation them that are my flesh [the Jews] and
might save some of them. If some of the branches
[the unbelieving Jews] be broken off, &c., because of
unbelief they were broken off, and thou [believing
Gentile] standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but
fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take
heed lest he also spare not thee, &c. Continue in his
goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" and
treated as a vessel of wrath. And they also, if they
abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in," and
treated as vessels of mercy, Rom. xi, 13, (fee.
But what need is there of going to Rom. xi, to show
the inconsistency of the Calvinistic doctrines of free
grace in Christ and free wrath in Adam ? of everlast-
10
218 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
ing love to some and everlasting hate to others ? Does
not Rom. ix itself afford us another powerful antidote 1
If the elect were from eternity God's beloved people,
while the non-elect were the devil's people, hated of
their Maker : and if God's love and hatred are equally
unchangeable, whether free agents change from holi-
ness to sin, or from sin to holiness ; what shall we
make of these words ? " I will call them my people
which were not my people ; and her beloved which was
not beloved. And where it was said unto them, Ye are
not my people : there [upon their believing] shall they
be called the children of God," Rom. ix, 25, 26. What
a golden key is here to open our doctrine of conditional
election, and to shut Zelotes' doctrine of absolute repro-
bation !
Having thus given a general view of what appears
to me, from conscience, reason, Scripture, and the con-
text, to be St. Paul's meaning in that deep chapter ; I
present the reader with a particular and Scriptural
explanation of some passages in it which do not puzzle
Honestus a little, and by which Zelotes supports the
doctrines of bound will and free wrath with some plau-
sibility.
I. II.
It is not [primarily] of Ye will not come to me
him that wilieth, [in God's that you might have life,
way,] nor is it [at all] of John v, 40. Whosoever
him that willeth, [in oppo- will, let him come, Rev.
sition to God's will, as the xxii, 17. I have set before
self-righteous Jews did,] you life and death, &c.,
Rom. ix, 16. choose, Deut. xxx, 19. I
would, &c., and ye would
not, Luke xiii, 34.
BEAUTIES O? FLETCHER.
219
I.
It is not [primarily] of
him that runneth, but* of
God that shovveth mercy,
Rom. ix, 16.
I will have mer-
cy on whom I will [or ra-
ther eAew, / should] have
mercy, Rom. ix, 15.
I will have
compassion on whom I will
11.
I went, &c., lest by any
means I should run or had
run in vain, Gal. ii, 2. So
run that [through mercy]
you may obtain, 1 Cor. ix,
24.
Whoso forsaketh his sin
shall have mercy, Prov.
xxviii, 13. Let the wicked
forsake his way, and, &c.,
the Lord will have mercy
upon him, Isa. Iv, 7. He
shall have judgment with-
out mercy that hath show-
ed no mercy, James ii, 13.
All the paths of the Lord
are mercy to such as keep
his covenant, Psalm xxv,
10.
As the heaven is high
above the earth ; so great
* In familiar and Scripture language the effect is frequently
ascribed to the chief cause ; while, for brevity's sake, inferior causes
or agents are passed over in silence. Thus David says, " Except
the Lord build the house, their labour is but vain that build it."
St. Paul says, " I laboured, yet not I, but the grace of God." And
we say, " Admiral Hawke has beat the French fleet." Would it
not be absurd in Zelotes to strain these expressions so as to make
absolutely nothing of the mason's work in the building of a house ;
of the apostle's preaching in the conversion of those Gentiles ; and
of the bravery of the officers and sailors in the victory got over the
French by the English admiral ? It is, nevertheless, upon such fri-
volous conclusions as these that Zelotes generally rests the enormous
weight of his peculiar doctrines.
220 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I. II-
[or rather OIKTP, I should] is his mercy toward them
have compassion, Romans that fear him, Psalm ciii,
ix 15. 11. The things that be-
long to thy peace are hid
from thine eyes, &c., because thou knewest not the
time of thy visitation, Luke xix, 44. How is it that
ye do not discern this time, yea, and why even of your-
selves judge ye not what is right ? Luke xii, 56, 57.
Hear, O heavens, &c., I have nourished children, and
they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his
owner, &c., but Israel doth not know, my people doth
not consider. It is a people of no understanding;
therefore he that formed them will show them no
favour, Isa. i, 3 ; xxvii, 11. And God said to Solo-
mon, Because thou hast asked for thyself understand-
ing, &c., lo, I have given thee a wise and understand-
ing' heart, 1 Kings iii, 11, 12. Because he considered,
&c., he shall not die, he shall surely live, Ezek. xviii.
28. [Who can help seeing, through this cloud of scrip-
tures, that " God has mercy on whom he should have
mercy," according to his divine attributes; extending
initial mercy to all, according to his long-suffering and
impartiality ; and showing eternal mercy, according to
his holiness and truth, to them that use and improve
their talent of understanding, so as to love him and
keep his commandments?]
I. II-
The children being not Thus saith the Lord,
yet born, neither having Did I plainly appear to the
done any good or evil, that house of thy father, &c.,
the purpose of God accord- and did I choose him out
ing to election might stand of all the tribes of Israel to
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
221
I.
not of works, but of him
that calleth [i. e., that God
might show, he may and
will choose some of Abra-
ham's posterity to some
peculiar privileges which
he does not confer upon
others : and likewise to
teach us that grace and
the new man mystically
typified by Jacob shall
have the reward of the in-
heritance, a reward this,
which fallen nature and
the old man, mystically
typified by Esau, shall
never receive : to teach us
this] it was said to Rebec-
ca, The elder shall serve
the younger : [in his poste-
rity,* though not in his per-
il.
be my priest, &c. Why
kick ye at my sacrifice?
Wherefore the Lord God
saith, / said indeed that
thy house should walk be-
fore me for ever. But now
the Lord saith, Be it far
from me; for them that
honour me I will honour ;
and they that despise me
shall be lightly esteemed,
1 Sam. ii, 27, &c. Again :
the Lord said to Samuel,
[I have not chosen,] I have
refused him, [Eliab,] for
the Lord seeth not as man
seeth : the Lord looketh at
the heart [and chooseth in
consequence : accordingly,
when] " Jesse made seven
of his sons to pass before
* Mr. Henry says with great truth, " All this choosing" of Jacob
and refusing of Esau " was typical, and intended to shadow forth
some other election and rejection." And although he was a Cal-
vinist, he does, in many respects, justice to St. Paul's meaning.
" This difference," says he, " that was put between Jacob and Esau,
he [the apostle] farther illustrates by a quotation from Mai. i, 2,
where it is said, not of Jacob and Esau the persons, but the Edom-
ites and Israelites their posterity : Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated.' The people of Israel were taken into the covenant
of peculiarity, had the land of Canaan given them, were blessed with
the more signal appearances of God for them in special protection,
supplies, and deliverances, while the Edomites were rejected, [from
the covenant of peculiarity,] had no temple, altars, priests, prophets;
222 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I. II.
son :] that is, the younger the Lord, Samuel said,
shall have the blessing of The Lord hath not chosen
no such particular care of them, &c. Others understand it of the
election and rejection of particular persons ; some loved and others
hated from eternity. But the apostle speaks of Jacob and Esau, not
in their own persons, but as ancestors : Jacob the people and Esau
the people : nor doth God damn any, or decree so to do, merely
because he will do it, without any reason taken from their own de-
serts, fec. The choosing of Jacob the younger was to intimate that
the Jews, though the natural seed of Abraham, and the first-born of
the church, should be laid aside : and the Gentiles, who were as the
younger brother, should be taken in their stead, and have the birth-
right and blessing." He concludes his comment upon the whole
chapter by these words, which exactly answer to the double key I
have given to the reader : " Upon the whole matter the unbelieving
Jews have no reason to quarrel with God for rejecting them : they
had a fair offer of righteousness, and life, and salvation, made upon
gospel terms, which they did not like, and would not come up to ;
and therefore if they perish they may thank themselves. Their
blood is upon their own heads."
What precedes is pure truth, and strongly confirms my doctrine.
But what follows is pure Calvinism, and shows the inconsistency of
the most judicious writers in that scheme. " Were the Jews hard-
ened ? It was because it was his own (God's) pleasure to deny them
softening grace, &c. Two sorls of vessels God forms out of the
great lump of fallen mankind : (1.) ' Vessels of wrath :' vessels filled
with wrath, as a vessel of wine is a vessel filled with wine, ' full
of the fury of the Lord,' &c. (2.) Vessels of mercy,' filled with
mercy." And again: "he (the apostle) answers by resolving all
into the divine sovereignty. We are the thing formed, and he is the
former, and it does not become us to challenge or arraign his wisdom
in ordering and disposing of us into this or that shape or figure."
That is, in plain English, free wrath, or, to speak smoothly as a
Calvinist, divine sovereignty may order and dispose us into the shape
of vessels of wrath before we have done either good or evil. How
could Mr. Henry thus contradict himself, and write for and against
truth ? Why, he was a moderate Calvinist : as moderate, he wrote
glorious truths ; and, as a Calvinist, horrid insinuations.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
223
I.
II.
the first-born. And it was
accordingly conferred upon
Jacob in these words, Be
lord over thy brethren^
Gen. xxvii, 29. To con-
clude, therefore, from Ja-
cob's superior blessing, that
Esau was absolutely cursed
and reprobated of God, is
as absurd as to suppose
that Manasseh, Joseph's
eldest son, was also an ab-
solute reprobate, because
Ephraim, his younger bro-
ther, had Jacob's chief bless-
ing: for the old patriarch
refusing to put his right
hand upon the head of
Manasseh, said, " Truly
his younger brother shall
be greater than he" Gen.
xlviii, 19. But would Ze-
lotes himself infer from
such words that Manasseh
was personally appointed
from all eternity to disbe-
lieve and be damned, and
Ephraim to believe and
be saved ; that the purpose
of God according to abso-
lute reprobation and elec-
tion might stand " not of
these, 1 Sam. xvi, 7, 10.
The Lord hath sought
him a man after his own
heart, [David,] because
thou [Saul] hast not kept
that which the Lord com-
manded thee. Once more :
the Lord has rent the king-
dom of Israel from thee
this day, and hath given
it to a neighbour of thine
that is better than thou,"
chap, xlii, 14 ; xv, 28.
The kingdom of Israel
was an unpromised gift to
Saul and to David, and yet
God's election to and re-
probation from that dignity
were according to disposi-
tions and works. Haw
much more may this be
said of God's election to or
reprobation from a crown
of glory ! a crown this,
which God hath promised
by way of reward to them
that love him ; refusing it
by way of punishment to
them that hate him ; whom
he clothes in hell with
shame and with a venge-
ful curse, according to their
224 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I. II.
works,* but of him that works and his own declara-
capriciously and irresist- tion which follows : "Yet
ibly calleth" some to finish- saith the [Predestiriarian]
ed salvation in Christ, and house of Israel, The way
others to finished damna- of the Lord is not equal.
tion in Adam ? That God O house of Israel, are
abhors such a proceeding not my ways equal ? Are
is evident from the scrip- not your ways unequal?
tures which fill my left Therefore I will judge you
scale, and in particular every one according to his
from the opposite texts. ways. Repent and turn,
&c., so iniquity shall not
be your ruin," Ezek. xviii,
29, &c. " I will do unto
* This phrase, " That the purpose of God according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth," is to be under-
stood merely of those blessings which distinguishing grace bestows
upon some men and not upon others, and which do not necessarily
affect their eternal salvation or their eternal damnation. In this
sense it was that God, for the above-mentioned reasons, preferred
Jacob to Esau. In this sense he still prefers a Jew to a Hottentot,
and a Christian to a Jew; giving a Christian the Old and New
Testament, while the Jew has only the Old, and the Hottentot has
neither. Far from denying the reality of this sovereign, distinguish-
ing grace, which is independent on all works, and flows entirely
from the superabounding kindness of " him that calleth," I have
particularly maintained it.t This is St. Paul's edifying meaning, to
which I have not the least objection. But when Zelotes stretches
the phrase so far as to make it mean that God ordains people to
eternal life or eternal death, " not of works, but of him that" with-
out reason forcibly calleth some to believe and be saved, leaving
others necessarily to disbelieve and be damned : when Zelotes does
this, I say, my reason and conscience are equally frighted, and I beg
leave to dissent from him, for the reasons mentioned in this chapter.
t See Fletcher's Works, vol. i, p. 505.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
225
I.
It is written, Jacob have
I loved } but Esau have I
hated, Rom. ix, 13.
Zelotes, who catches at
whatever seems to counte-
nance his doctrine of free
wrath, thinks that this
scripture demonstrates the
electing and reprobating
partiality on which his
favourite doctrines are
founded. To see his mis-
II.
them according to their
way ; and according to
their deserts [secundum
merita] will I judge them,
and they shall know that
I am the Lord," Ezek. vii,
27. To these scriptures
you may add all the mul-
titude of texts where God
declares that he will judge,
i. e., justify or condemn,
reward or punish, finally
elect or finally reprobate
men /or, by, according to,
or because of, their works.
God is love. God is
loving to every man, and
his tender mercies [in the
accepted time] are over all
his works. Yet the chil-
dren of thy people say,
The way of the Lord is
not equal: but as for them,
their way is not equal, &c.,
1 John iv, 8 ; Psalm cxlv,
in the common prayers;
Ezek. xxxiii, 17.
take, we need only consider that, in the Scripture lan-
guage, a love of preference is emphatically called love ;
and an inferior degree of love is comparatively called
hatred. Pious Jacob was not such a churlish man as
positively to hate any body, much less Leah, his cousin
10*
226 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
and his wife : nevertheless, we read, " The Lord saw
that Leah was hated : the Lord hath heard that I was
hated : now, therefore, my husband will love me :"
i. e., Jacob will prefer me to Rachel, his barren wife,
Gen. xxix, 31, 32. Again : Moses makes a law con-
cerning " a man that hath two wives, one beloved and
another hated," without intimating that it is wrong in
the husband to hate, that is, to be less fond of one of
his wives than of the other, Deut. xxi, 15. Once more :
our Lord was not the chaplain of the old murderer, that
he should command us positively to hate our fathers,
mothers, and wives : for he who thus " hateth another
is a murderer." Nevertheless, he not only says, " He
that hateth his life [that invaluable gift of God] shall
keep it unto life eternal; and he that loveth his life
shall lose it :" but he declares, " If any man hate not
his father, and mother, and wife, and children, ajid
brethren, and sisters, he cannot be my disciple," Luke
xiv, 26. Now, Christ evidently means, that whosoever
does not love his father, &c., and his own life less than
him, cannot be his sincere disciple. By a similar idiom
it is said, " Esau have I hated :" an expression this,
which no more means that God had absolutely rejected
Esau, and appointed him to the pit of destruction, than
Christ meant that we should absolutely throw away our
lives, reject our fathers, wives, and children, and aban-
don them to destruction.
II. I.
* Whom he will he hard- The god of this world
eneth, Rom. ix, 18. [not the Almighty] hath
* The reader is desired to take notice, that in this and the follow,
ing paragraphs, where I produce scriptures expressive of God's just
wrath, I have shifted the numbers that mark to which axiom the
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
227
II.
That is, God judicially
gives up to a reprobate
mind whom he will, not
according to Calvinistic
caprice, but according to
the rectitude of his own
nature: and according to
this rectitude displayed in
the gospel, he will give
up all those who, by ob-
stinately hardening their
hearts to the last, turn the
day of salvation into a
day of final provocation,
see Psalm xcv, 8, &c.
He hath blinded their
eyes, and hardened their
hearts, that they should
not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their
heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them,
John xii, 40.
That is, he hath judi-
cially given them up to
their own blindness and
I.
[by their own free consent]
blinded the minds of them
that believe not. Now is
the day of salvation. De-
spisest thou the riches of
God's goodness, forbear-
ance, and long-suffering?
not knowing that the good-
ness of God leadeth thee
to repentance? But after
thy hardness, and impeni-
tent heart, treasures! up
unto thyself wrath, 2 Cor.
iv, 4 ; vi, 2 ; Rom. ii, 4, 5.
In them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Esaias, who
says, By hearing ye shall
hear, and shall not under-
stand ; and seeing, ye shall
see, and shall not perceive.
For this people's heart is
waxed gross; [through
their obstinately resisting
the light ;] and their ears
are dull of hearing, and
passage belongs. And this I have done, (1.) Because there is no
free wrath in God. (2.) Because, when there is wrath in him,
man's perverseness is the just cause of it. And, (3.) Because, in
point of evil, man has the wretched diabolical honour of being first
cause; and therefore, No. I. is his shameful prerogative, according
to the principles laid down in chapter xii, section i.
228
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
II.
L
hardness. They had said
so long, We will not see,
that he said at last in his
just anger, They shall not
see; determined to with-
draw the abused, forfeited
light of his grace ; and so
they were blinded.
The Lord [in the above-
mentioned sense] harden-
ed Pharaoh's heart, [for his
unparalleled cruelty to Is-
rael,] Exod. i, 10, 22 ; vii,
13. See the next note.
their eyes they have clos-
ed, lest at any time they
should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and should understand
with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should
heal them, Matt, xiii, 14, 15.
Pharaoh hardened his
heart, and hearkened not,
Exod. viii, 15. Zedekiah
stiffened his neck, and
hardened his heart from
turning unto the Lord,
2 Chron. xxxvi, 13. Take
heed lest any of you be hardened through the deceit-
fulness of sin, Heb. iii, 18. Happy is the man that
feareth alway ; but he that hardeneth his heart [as
Pharaoh did] shall fall into mischief, [God will give
him up.] Prov. xxviii, 14. They are without excuse :
because, when they knew God, they glorified him not
as God, &c. Wherefore God also gave them up to
uncleanness, <fcc. For this cause God gave them up
to vile affections, &c. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over
to a reprobate mind, Rom. i, 20, 28.
II. I.
Thou wilt say then un- Shall not the Judge of
to me, Why does he yet all the earth do right? Gen.
find fault? For who hath xviii,25. That thou might-
resisted his will? Rom. ix, est be justified in thy say-
19. ing, and clear when thou
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
229
II.
I.
The rigid Calvinists tri-
umph greatly in this ob-
jection started by St. Paul.
They suppose that it can
be reasonably levelled at
no doctrine but their own,
which teaches, that God
by irresistible decrees has
unconditionally ordained
some men to eternal life,
and others to eternal death ;
and therefore their doctrine
is that of the apostle. To
show the absurdity of this
conclusion, I need only re-
mind the reader once more,
that in this chapter St. Paul
establishes two doctrines:
(1.) That God may admit
whom he will into the
art judged, Psa. li, 4. Com.
Prayer.
Who but Zelotes could
justify an imaginary being
that should, by the chan-
nel of irresistible decrees,
pour sin and wrath into
vessels made on purpose to
hold both ; and should call
himself the God of love,
the Holy One of Israel, and
a God of judgment 1 Nay,
who would not detest a
king, who should abso-
lutely contrive the con-
tracted wickedness and
crimes of his subjects, that
he might justly sentence
them to eternal torments,
to show his sovereignty
and power ?
covenant of peculiarity,
out of pure, distinguishing,
sovereign grace: and, (2.) That he had an absolute
right of hardening whom he will upon gospel terms,
i. e., of taking the talent of "softening grace from all
*Mr. Henry comments thus upon these words: " I will harden his
heart," that is, " withdraw softening grace," which God undoubt-
edly did upon just provocation. Whence it follows that, inconsist-
ent Calvinists being judges, Pharaoh himself had once softening
grace ; it being impossible for God to withdraw from Pharaoh's
heart what never was there. Query. Was this softening grace,
which God withdrew from Pharaoh, of the reprobating or of tho
electing kind ?
230 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
that imitate the obstinate unbelief of Pharaoh ; such
inflexible unbelievers being the only people whom God
will harden or give up to a reprobate mind. Now in
both those respects the objection proposed is pertinent,
as the apostle's answers plainly show. With regard to
the first doctrine, that is, the doctrine of that distin-
guishing grace which puts more honour upon one ves-
sel than upon another; calling Abraham to be the
Lord's " pleasant vessel," while Lot or Moab is only his
" wash pot ;" the apostle answers : " Nay, but, O man,
who art thou who repliest against God ? shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, "Why hast thou made
me thus ?" Why am la" wash pot," and not a " plea-
sant vessel?" "Hath not the potter power over the
clay ?" &c. Besides, is it not a blessing to be compara-
tively a " vessel to dishonour ?" Had not Ishmael and
Esau a blessing, though it was inferior to that of Isaac
and Jacob ? Is not a wash pot as good in its place as
a drinking cup ? Is not a righteous Gentile a Mel-
chisedec, or a Job, &c., as acceptable to God, according
to his dispensation, as a devout Jew and a sincere
Christian according to theirs? With respect to the
second doctrine, that of hardening obstinate unbelievers,
and " making his wrathful power known" upon them :
after tacitly granting that it is impossible to resist God's
absolute will, the apostle intimates in his laconic, and
yet comprehensive way of writing, that God has a right
to find fault with, and display his wrathful power upon
hardened sinners, because "he hardens" none but such
as have personally made themselves " vessels of wrath,"
and " fitted themselves for destruction" by doing despite
to the Spirit of his grace, instead of improving their clay
of initial salvation : and he insinuates that even then,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
231
God, instead of presently dealing with them according
to their deserts, "endures them with much long-
suffering," which, according to St. Peter's doctrine, is
to be counted a degree of salvation. Therefore in
both senses the objection is pertinently proposed,
and justly answered by the apostle, without the
help of sovereign free wrath and Calvinistic repro-
bation.
I.
Hath not the potter
power over the clay, of the
same lump to make one
vessel unto honour and
another unto dishonour?
Rom. ix, 21.
I have observed again
and again that the apostle
with his two-edged sword
defends two doctrines : (1.)
The right which God, our
sovereign benefactor, has
to give five talents, or one
talent, to whom he pleases,
that is, to admit some peo-
ple to the covenant of pe-
culiarity, while he leaves
others under a more gene-
ral dispensation of grace
and favour. Thus a Jew
was once a vessel to hon-
our, a person honoured far
above a Gentile, and a
Gentile, in comparison to
II.
The vessel that he [the
potter] made of clay, was
marred in the hand of
the potter; so he made
it again into another ves-
sel, as seemed good to the
potter, &c. O house of
Israel, cannot I do with
you as this potter, says the
Lord, &c. At what instant
I shall speak concerning a
nation, &c., to destroy ; [for
its wickedness ;] if that na-
tion, against whom I have
pronounced, turn from their
evil, / will repent of the
evil that I thought to do
unto them. And at what
instant I shall speak con-
cerning a nation, &c., to
build it, if it do evil in my
sight, that it obey not my
voice, then I will repent
of the good wherewith I
232
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
I.
II.
a Jew, might be called " a
vessel to dishonour." Mo-
ab, to use again the psalm-
ist's expression, was once
only God's "wash pot,"
Psa. Ix, 8, while Israel was
his " pleasant vessel." But
now the case is altered:
the Jews are nationally be-
come the " vessel wherein
there is no pleasure," and
the Gentiles are the " plea-
sant vessel." And where
is the injustice of this pro-
ceeding ? If a potter may
make of the same lump of
clay what vessel he pleases,
some for the dining room,
and others for the meanest
apartment, all good and
useful in their respective
places ; why should not
God have the same liberty?
Why should he not, if he
chooses it, place some moral
vessels above others, and
raise the Gentiles to the
honour of being his pecu-
liar people ? An unspeak-
able honour this, which
was before granted to the
Jews only.
said I would benefit them,
Jer. xviii, 4.
When St. Paul wrote
Rom. ix, 21, he had pro-
bably an eye to the prece-
ding passage of Jeremiah,
which is alone sufficient
to rectify the mistakes of
Zelotes ; there being scarce
a stronger text to prove that
God's decrees respectingour
salvation and destruction
are conditional. Never did
"Sergeant IF" guard the
genuine doctrines of grace
more valiantly, or give Cal-
vinism a more desperate
thrust than he does in the
potter's house by the pen
of Jeremiah. However, lest
that prophet's testimony
should not appear suffi-
ciently weighty to Zelotes,
I strengthen it by an ex-
press declaration of God
himself:
"Have I any pleasure
at all that the wicked
should die, saith the Lord ;
and not that he should re-
turn from his ways and
live? Yet ye say, The
BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER.
233
I.
The apostle's second
doctrine respects "vessels
of mercy and vessels of
wrath," which in the pre-
sent case must be carefully
distinguished from the "ves-
sels to honour," or to nobler
uses, and "the vessels to
dishonour," or to less noble
uses : and, if I mistake not,
this distinction is one of
those things which, as St.
Peter observes, are "hard
to be understood in Paul's
II.
way of the Lord is not
equal [in point of election
to eternal life, and appoint-
ment to eternal death.]
Hear now, O house of Is-
rael, Is not my way equal ?
When a righteous man
turneth away from his
righteousness, &c., for his
iniquity shallhedie. Again:
when a wicked man turn-
eth from his wickedness,
&c., he shall save his soul
alive," Ezek. xviii, 23, &c.
epistles." The importance
of it appears from this consideration : God may, as a
just and gracious sovereign, absolutely make a moral
vessel for a more or less honourable use, as he pleases ;
such a preference of one vessel to another being no
more inconsistent with divine goodness, than the king's
appointing one of his subjects lord of the bed-chamber,
and another only groom of the stable, is inconsistent
with royal good nature. But this is not the case with
respect to "vessels of mercy" and "vessels of wrath."
If you insinuate, with Zelotes, that an absolute God, to
show his absolute love and wrath, absolutely made some
men to fill them unconditionally and eternally with
love and mercy, and others to fill them unconditionally
and eternally with hatred and wrath, by way of re-
ward and punishment, you " change the truth of God
into a lie," and serve the great Diana of the Calvinists
more than the righteous Judge of all the earth. What-
234 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
ever Zelotes may think of it, God never made an adult
a vessel of eternal mercy that did not first submit to
the obedience of faith ; nor did he ever absolutely look
upon any man as a vessel of wrath, that had not by
personal, obstinate unbelief, first fitted himself for
destruction. Considering then the comparison of the
potter as referring in a secondary sense to the " vessels
of mercy," and to the " vessels of wrath," it conveys the
following rational and Scriptural ideas : May not God,
as the righteous maker of moral vessels, fill with mercy
or with wrath whom he will, according to his essential
wisdom and rectitude ? May he not shed abroad his
pardoning mercy and love in the heart of a believing
Gentile, as well as in the breast of a believing Jew 1
And may he not give up to a reprobate mind, yea, fill
with the sense of his just wrath a stubborn Jew, a Caia-
phas, as well as a refractory Gentile, a Pharaoh ? Have
not Jews and Gentiles a common original ? And may
not the Author of their common existence, as their im-
partial lawgiver, determine to save or damn individuals,
upon the gracious and equitable terms of the gospel dis-
pensations? Is he bound absolutely to give all the
blessings of the Messiah's kingdom to Abraham's pos-
terity, and absolutely to reprobate the rest of the world ?
Has a Jew more right to " reply against God" than a
Gentile? When God propounds his terms of salvation,
does it become any man to " say to him that formed
him, Why hast thou made me thus" subject to thy go-
vernment? Why must I submit to thy terms? If God
without injustice could appoint that Christ should de-
scend from Isaac, and not from Ishmael; if, before Esau
and Jacob had done any good or evil, he could fix that
the blood of Jacob, and not that of Esau, should run in
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 235
his Son's veins, though Esau was Isaac's child as well
as Jacob ; how much more may he, without breaking
the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, fix
that the free-willing believer, whether Jew or Gentile,
shall be a " vessel of mercy prepared for glory," chiefly
by free grace ; and that the free- willing unbeliever shall
be a " vessel of wrath, fitted," chiefly by free will, " for
just destruction ?" Is not this doctrine agreeable to our
Lord's expostulation, With "the light of life, which
lightens every man, you will not come unto me that
.you might have life more abundant life yea, life
evermore ?" Does it not perfectly tally with the great,
irrespective decrees of conditional election and reproba-
tion, " He that believeth, and is baptized," that is, he
that shows his faith by correspondent works, when his
Lord comes to reckon with him, " shall be saved : and
he that believeth not," though he were baptized, " shall
be damned ?" And is it not astonishing, that when St.
Paul's meaning in Rom. ix can be so easily opened by
the silver and golden key, which God himself has
sent us from heaven, I mean reason and Scripture, so
many pious divines should go to Geneva, and humbly
borrow Calvin's wooden and iron key, I mean his elec-
tion and reprobation ? Two keys these, which are in
as great repute among injudicious Protestants, as the
keys of his holiness are among simple Papists. Nor do
I see what great difference there is between the Romish
and the Geneva keys : if the former open and shut a
fool's paradise, or a knave's purgatory, do not the latter
shut us all up in finished salvation or finished damna-
tion?
236 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ABSURDITY OF SUPPOSING THAT THERE CAN
BE ANY FREE WRATH IN A JUST AND GOOD GOD.
I SHALL close the preceding scriptures by some argu-
ments which show the absurdity of supposing that there
can be any free wrath in a just and good God.
(1.) When Adam, with all his posterity in his loins,
came forth out of the hands of his Maker, b was pro-
nounced very good, as being " made in the likeness of
God," and " after the image of him" who is a perfect
compound of every possible perfection. God spake
those words in time ; but if we believe Zelotes, the sup-
posed decree of .absolute, personal rejection, was made
before time ; God having fixed, from all eternity, that
Esau should be absolutely hated. Now, as Esau stood
in and with Adam, before he fell in and with him; and
as God could not but consider him as standing and
righteous, before he considered him fallen and sin-
ful; it necessarily follows, either that Calvinism is a
system of false doctrine ; or, that the God of love, holi-
ness, and equity, once hated his righteous creature, once
reprobated the innocent, and said, by his decree, " Cain,
Esau, Saul, and Judas, are very good, for they are
seminal parts of Adam my son, whom I pronounce
very good, Gen. i, 31. But I actually hate those parts
of my unsullied workmanship: without any actual
cause, I detest mine own perfect image. Yea, I turn
my eyes from their present complete goodness, that I
may hate them for their future pre-ordained iniquity."
Suppose the God of love had transformed himself into
the evil principle of the Manichees, what could he have
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 237
done worse than thus to hate with immortal hatred, and
absolutely to reprobate his innocent, his pure, his spot-
less offspring, at the very time in which he pronounced
it very good ? If Zelotes shudders at his own doc-
trine, and finds himself obliged to grant, that so long,
at least, as Adam stood, Cain, Esau, Saul, and Judas
stood with him, and in him were actually loved, condi-
tionally chosen, and wonderfully blessed of God in para-
dise ; it follows that the doctrine of God's everlasting
hate, arid of the eternal, absolute rejection of those whom
, Zelotes considers as the four great reprobates, is founded
on the grossest contradiction imaginable.
2. But Zelotes possibly complains that I am unfair,
because I point out the deformity of his " doctrine of
grace," without saying one word of its beauty. " Why
do you not," says he, " speak of God's absolute, ever-
lasting love to Jacob, as well as of his absolute, ever-
lasting hate to Esau, Pharaoh, and Judas ? Is it right
to make always the worst of things ?" Indeed, Zelotes,
if I am not mistaken, your absolute election is full as
subversive of Christ's gospel as your absolute reproba-
tion. The Scripture informs us, that when Adam fell
he lost the favour, as well as the image of God ; and
that he became a " vessel of wrath" from head to foot :
but if everlasting, changeless love still embraced innu-
merable parts of his seed, his fall was by no means so
grievous and universal as the Scriptures represent it :
for " a multitude, which no man can number," ever
stood, and shall ever stand on the rock of ages : a rock
this which, if we believe Zelotes, is made of unchange-
able, absolute, sovereign, everlasting love for the elect,
and of unchangeable, absolute, sovereign, everlasting
wrath for the reprobates.
238 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
3. But this is only part of the mischief that necessa-
rily flows from the fictitious doctrines of grace. They
make the cup of trembling, which our Lord drank in
Gethsemane, and the sacrifice which he offered on Cal-
vary, in a great degree insignificant. Christ's office as
high priest was to sprinkle the burning throne with his
precious blood, and to " turn away wrath" by the sacri-
fice of himself: but if there never was either a burning
throne, or any wrath flaming against the elect ; if un-
changeable love ever embraced them, how greatly is
the oblation of Christ's blood x depreciated? Might he
not almost have saved himself the trouble of coming
down from heaven to "turn a way a wrath" which never
flamed against the elect, and which shall never cease to
flame against the reprobates 1
4. From God's preaching the gospel to our first
parents it appears that they were of the number of the
elect, and Zelotes himself is of opinion that they be-
longed to the little flock. If this was the case, accord-
ing to the doctrine of free, sovereign, unchangeable,
everlasting love to the elect, it nee ssarily follows, that
Adam himself was never a child of wrath. Nor does
it require more faith to believe that our first parents
were God's pleasant children, when they sated them-
selves with forbidden fruit, than to believe that David
and Bathsheba were persons after God's own heart,
when they defiled Uriah's bed. Hence it follows that
the doctrine of God's everlasting love, in the Crispian
sense of the word, is absolutely false, or that Adam
himself was a child of changeless, everlasting love,
when he made his wife, the serpent, and his own belly,
his trinity under the fatal tree : while Cain was a child
of everlasting wrath, when God said of him, in his
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 239
father's loins, that he was very good. Thus we still
find ourselves at the shrine of the great Diana of the
Calvinists, singing the new song of salvation and dam-
nation finished from everlasting to everlasting, accord-
ing to the doctrine laid down by the Westminster
divines in their catechism : " God from all eternity did,
by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will,
freely and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass."
5. This leads me to a third argument. If God from
all eternity did "unchangeably ordain' 1 all events, and,
in particular, that the man Christ should absolutely die
to save a certain, fixed number of men, who (by the
by) never were children of wrath, and therefore never
were in the least danger of perishing : if he unaltera-
bly appointed that the devil should tempt, and abso-
lutely prevail over a certain fixed number of men who
were children of wrath, before temptation and sin made
them so : if this is the case, I say, how idle was Christ's
redeeming work! How foolish the tempter's restless
labour ! How absurd Zelotes' preaching ! How full
of inconsistency his law messages of wrath to the elect,
and his gospel messages of free grace to the reprobates !
And how true the doctrine, which has lately appeared
in print, and sums up the Crispian gospel in these sen-
tences : Ye, elect, shall be saved, do what ye will ;
and ye, reprobates, shall be damned, do what ye can ;
for in the day of his power the Almighty will make
you all absolutely willing to go to the place which he
has unconditionally ordained you for, be it heaven or
hell ; God, if we believe the Westminster divines, in
their catechism, "having unchangeably foreordained
whatever comes to pass in time, especially concerning
angels and men." An unscriptural doctrine this, which
240 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
charges all sin and damnation upon God, and perfectly
agrees with the doctrine of the consistent Calvinists,
I mean the doctrine of finished salvation and finished
damnation, thus summed up by Bishop Burnet in his
exposition of the seventeenth article : " They think,
&c., that he," God, " decreed Adam's sin, the lapse of
his posterity, and Christ's death, together with the sal-
vation and damnation of such men as should be most
for his own glory : that to those that were to be saved
he decreed to give such efficacious assistances as should
certainly put them in the way of salvation ; and to
those whom he rejected, he decreed to give such assist-
ances and means only as should render them inexcusa-
ble." Just as if those people could ever be inexcusable
who only do what their almighty Creator has "un
changeably ordained !"
CHAPTER XV.
MR. TOPLADY'S CHRISTIAN AND PHILOSOPHICAL
NECESSITY CONSIDERED.
MR. TOPLADY'S scheme of Christian and philo-
sophical necessity makes God the author of every sin.
Says Mr. Toplady, page 12 :
" If we distinguish accurately, this seems to have
been the order in which the most judicious of the
ancients considered the whole matter: First, God;
then his will; then fate, or the solemn ratification
of his will, by passing and establishing it into an un-
changeable decree; then creation; then necessity;
i. e., such an indissoluble concatenation of secondary
causes and effects as has a native tendency to secure
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 241
the certainty of all events, as one wave is impelled
by another ; then providence ; i. e., the omnipresent,
omnivigilantj all-directing superintendency of divine
wisdom and power, carrying the whole preconcerted
scheme into actual execution by the subservient media-
lion of second causes, which were created for that end."
Upon this Mr. Fletcher observes I would only ask
a few questions: (1.) If all our actions, and conse-
quently all our sins, compose the seventh link of the
chain ; if the first link is God ; the second his will ;
the third his decree the fourth the creation ; the fifth
necessity; the sixth providence; and the seventh sin;
is it not as easy to trace the pedigree of sin through
providence, necessity, creation, God's decree, and
God's will, up to God himself, as it is to trace back
the genealogy of the prince of Wales from George III.,
by George II., up to George I. ? And upon this plan is
it not clear that sin is as much the real offspring of
God, as the prince of Wales is the real offspring of
George the First? (2.) If this is the case, is not God
the author of sin by means of his will, his decree, his
creation, his necessitation, and his providence 7 Does
it not unavoidably follow that sin is the offspring of
God's providence, of God's necessitation, of God's
creation, of God's decree, of God's will, of God him-
self?
To say that men sin voluntarily as well as neces-
sarily is only to make a bad matter worse. For if all
their sins are necessarily brought about by God's de-
cree, their willing and bad choice are brought about
by the same means.
Mr. Toplady attempts to support his scheme of
absolute necessity by taking a philosophical survey
11
242 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
of the soul's dependance on the body, and on the sur-
rounding circumstances. He remarks that "the soul
is in a very extensive degree passive, as matter is ;
the senses are necessarily impressed by every object
from without ; and as necessarily commove the fibres
of the brain ; from which nervous commotion ideas are
necessarily communicated to, or excited in, the soul ;
and by the judgment which the soul necessarily frames
of those ideas, the will is necessarily inclined to approve
or disapprove, to act or not to act."" The human body
is necessarily encompassed by a multitude of other
bodies; which other surrounding bodies, animal, ve-
getable, &c., so far as we come within their perceivable
sphere, necessarily impress our nerves with sensations
correspondent to the objects themselves. These sensa-
tions are necessarily propagated to the soul, which can
no more help receiving them, and being affected by
them, than a tree can resist a stroke of lightning."
To this "philosophical survey" Mr. Fletcher opposes
the following remarks :
I. This scheme is contrary to genuine philosophy,
which has always represented the soul as able to resist
the strongest impressions of the objects that surround
the body.
II. This doctrine unman's man. For reason, or a
power morally to regulate the appetite which we gratify
by means of our senses, is what chiefly distinguishes
us from other animals. Now, if outward objects neces-
sarily bias our senses ; if our senses necessarily bias
our judgment ; and if our judgment necessarily bias
our will and practice ; what advantage have we over
beasts ?
III. It also overthrows conscience, and the "light
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 243
which enlightens every man." For of what use is
conscience^ Or of what use is the internal light of
grace which enlightens conscience within, if man is
necessarily determined from without; and if the ob-
jects which strike his senses irresistibly turn his judg-
ment and his will, insomuch that he can no more resist
their impression " than a tree can resist a stroke of
lightning ?"
IV. This scheme robs us of the very essence of God's
natural image, which consists chiefly in self-activity
and self-motion. For, according to this scheme, we
cannot take one step, not even in the common affairs
of life, without an irresistible necessitating impulse.
V. This scheme of necessity charges all sin upon
Providence, who, by the surrounding objects which ne-
cessarily impress our intellect, causes sin as truly and
as irresistibly as a gunner causes the explosion of a
loaded cannon by applying a lighted match to the
powder. And Eve was unwise when she said, " The
serpent beguiled me and I did eat :" for she might have
said, " Lord, I have only followed the appointed law of
my nature : for providentially coming within sight of
the tree of knowledge, I perceived that the fruit was
good for food, and pleasant to the eye. It necessarily
impressed my nerves with correspondent sensations;
these sensations were necessarily and instantaneously
propagated to my soul; and my soul could no more
help receiving these forcible impressions, and eating in
consequence of them, than a tree can resist a stroke
of lightning."
VI. It is contrary to Scripture ; for if man be neces-
sarily affected and irresistibly wrought upon or led by
the forcible impressions of external objects, Paul spoke
344 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
like a heretical free wilier when he said, All things
[indifferent] are lawful for me ; but I will not be
brought under the power of any. How foolish was
the saying, if he could no more help being brought
under the irresistible power of the objects which sur-
rounded him than a tree can help being struck by
lightning !
VII. It is contrary to common sense. How can God
reasonably set life and death before us, and bid us
choose life and shun death, if surrounding objects work
upon us as lightning works on a tree ?
VIII. It is contrary to the sentiment of all the
churches of Christ, for they all reasonably require us
to renounce the vain pomps of the world, and the al-
luring, sinful baits of the flesh. But if these pomps
and baits work upon us by means of our senses as
necessarily., and determine oar wills as irresistibly, as
lightning shivers a tree, can any thing be more absurd
than our baptismal engagements? Might we not as
well seriously vow never to be struck with lightning ?
IX. It represents the proceedings of the day of judg-
ment as the most unrighteous, cruel, and hypocritical
acts that ever disgraced the tribunal of a tyrant. For
if God, by eternal, absolute, and necessitating decrees,
places the reprobates in the midst of a current of cir-
cumstances which carries them along as irresistibly as
a rapid river wafts a feather ; if he encompasses them
with tempting objects, which strike their souls with
ideas that cause sin in their hearts and lives, as in-
evitably as a stroke of lightning raises splinters in a
tree which it shatters ; and if we can no more help
being determined by these objects, which God's provi-
dence has placed around us on purpose to determine
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 246
us, than a tree can resist a stroke of lightning, it un-
avoidably follows, that when God will judicially con-
demn the wicked and send them to hell for their sins,
he will act with as much justice as the king would do
if he sent to the gallows all his subjects who have had
the misfortune of being struck with lightning. Nay,
to make the case parallel, we must suppose that the
king has the absolute command of the lightning, and
had previously struck them with the fiery ball, that he
might subsequently condemn them to be hanged for
having been struck according to his absolute decree.
X. This scheme of necessity places matter and its
impressions far above spirit and its influence. Every
material object around us, by making necessary, irre-
sistible impressions on our minds, necessarily determines
our will, and irresistibly impels our actions. According
to this system, we cannot resist the influence of matter;
but if we believe the Scriptures, we can resist the Holy
Ghost, and do despite to the Spirit of grace. Now,
what is this but to represent matter as more active,
quick, and powerful than spirit? yea, than even the
Holy Spirit ?
246 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER XVI.
ABSURD CONSEQUENCES ATTACHED TO ERROR.
SECTION I.
SHOWING THAT, UPON THE CALVINIAN SCHEME, IT IS AN
INDUBITABLE TRUTH THAT SOME MEN SHALL BE SAVED,
DO WHAT THEY WILL, TILL THE EFFICACIOUS DECREE OF
CALVINIAN ELECTION NECESSITATES THEM TO REPENT
AND BE SAVED ; AND THAT OTHERS SHALL BE DAMNED,
DO WHAT THEY CAN, TILL THE EFFICACIOUS DECREE OF
CALVINIAN REPROBATION NECESSITATES THEM TO SIN
AND BE DAMNED.
IF GOD from all eternity absolutely predestinated a
fixed number of men, called the elect, to eternal life,
and absolutely predestinated a fixed number of men,
called the reprobate, to eternal death, does it not un-
avoidably follow that "the elect shall be saved, do
what they will /' and that " the reprobate shall be
damned, do what they can ?" Mr. Wesley thinks
that this consequence is true ; Mr. Toplady says that
it is absolutely false ; but I side with Mr. Wesley for
the consequence ; guarding against cavils by a clause
which his love of brevity made him think needless.
An illustration will at once show the justness of this
consequence to an unprejudiced reader. Fifty fishes
sport in a muddy pond where they have received life.
The skilful and almighty owner of the pond has ab-
solutely decreed that ten of these fishes, properly marked
with a shining mark called election, shall absolutely be
caught in a certain net, called a gospel net, on a cer-
tain day, called the day of his power > and that they
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 247
shall every one be cast into a delightful river, where he
has engaged himself, by an eternal covenant of parti-
cular redemption, to bring them without fail. The
same omnipotent proprietor of the pond has likewise
absolutely decreed that all the rest of the fishes, namely,
forty, which are properly distinguished by a black
mark called reprobation, shall never be caught in the
gospel net ; or that, if they are entangled in it at any
time, they shall always be drawn out of it, and so shall
necessarily continue in the muddy pond till, on a certain
day, called the day of his wrath, he shall sweep the
pond with a certain net called a LAW net, catch them
all, and cast them into a lake of fire and brimstone,
where he has engaged himself, by an everlasting cove-
nant of non-redemption, to bring them all without fail,
that they may answer the end of their predestination to
death, which is to show the goodness of his law net,
and to destroy them for having been bred in the muddy
pond, and for not having been caught in the gospel net.
The owner of the pond is wise as well as powerful.
He knows, that absolutely to secure the end to which
his fishes are absolutely predestinated, he must also
absolutely secure the means which conduce to that
end : and therefore, that none may escape their happy
or unfortunate predestination, he keeps night and day
his hold of them all by a strong hook called necessity,
and by an invisible line called divine decrees. By
means of this line and hook it happens, that if the
fishes that bear the mark of election are ever so loth to
come into the gospel net, or to stay therein, they are
always drawn into it in a day of powerful love ; and if
the fishes which bear the mark of reprobation are for
a time ever so desirous to wrap themselves in the gospel
248 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
net, they are always drawn out of it in a day of power-
ful wrath. For though the fishes seem to swim ever
so freely, yet their motions are all absolutely fixed by
the owner of the pond, and determined by means of the
above line and hook. If this is the case, says Mr. Wes-
ley, ten fishes shall go into the delightful river, let them
do what they will; let them plunge in the mud of their
pond ever so briskly, or leap toward the lake of fire ever
so often, while they have any liberty to plunge or to
leap. And all the rest of the fishes, forty in number,
shall go into the lake of fire, let them do what they
can ; let them involve themselves ever so long in the
gospel net, and leap ever so often toward the fine river,
before they are absolutely necessitated to go through the
mud of their own pond into the sulphureous pool. The
consequence is undeniable, and I make no doubt that
all unprejudiced persons see it as well as myself; as
sure as two and two make four, or, if you please, as
sure as ten and forty make fifty, so sure ten fishes
shall be caught in the gospel net, and forty in the
law net.
Mr. Toplady denies the consequence, and says
" Can Mr. Wesley produce a single instance of any
one man who did all he could to be saved, and yet was
lost? If he can, let him tell us who that man was,
where he lived, when he died, what he did, and how
it came to pass that he laboured in vain ; if he cannot,
let him either retract his consequences, or continue to
be posted as a shameless traducer."
I answer : 1. To require Mr. Wesley to show a man
who did all he could, and yet was lost, is requiring him
to prove that Calvinian reprobation is true ! a thing
this which he can no more do than he can prove that
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 249
God is false. Mr. Wesley never said any man was
damned after doing his best to be saved ; he only says
that, if Calvinism is true, the reprobates shall all be
damned, though they should all do their best to be saved,
till the efficacious decree of their absolute reprobation
necessitates them to draw back and be damned.
2. As Mr. Toplady's bold request may impose upon his
inattentive readers, I beg leave to point out its absurdity
by a short illustration. Mr. Wesley says, if there is
a mountain of gold, it is heavier than a handful of
feathers ; and his consequence passes for true in Eng-
land : but a gentleman who teaches logic in mystic
Geneva thinks that it is absolutely false, and that Mr.
Wesley's "forehead must be petrified, and quite im-
pervious to a blush," for advancing it. Can Mr.
Wesley, says he, show us a mountain of gold which
is really heavier than a handful of feathers ? If he can,
let him tell us what mountain it is, where it lies, in
what latitude, how high it is, and who did ever ascend
to the top of it. If he cannot, let him either retract
his consequences, or continue to be posted as a shame-
less traducer.
SECTION II.
MR. TOPLADY'S INQUIRY ANSWERED.
Mr. Toplady inquires, " Is salvation due to a man
that does not perform those conditions ?" And then he
remarks, " If you say yes, you jump hand over head
into what you yourself call Antinomianism. If you
say that salvation is not due to a man unless he do
fulfil the condition; it will follow that man's own
11*
250 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
performances are meritorious of salvation, and bring
God himself into debt."
To this Mr. Fletcher answers The flaw of Mr.
Toplady's argument will appear in its proper magni-
tude, if we look at it through the following illustration :
A whole regiment is led to the left by the colonel, whom
the general wanted to turn to the right. The colonel,
who is personally in the fault, is pardoned ; and five
hundred of the soldiers, who, by the overbearing influ-
ence of their colonel's disobedience, were necessitated
to move to the left, are appointed to be hanged for not
going to the right. The general sends to Geneva for
a Tertullus, who vindicates the justice of the execu-
tion by the following speech : " Preferment is not due
to obedient soldiers, much less to soldiers who have
necessarily disobeyed orders ; and therefore your gra-
cious general acts consistently with justice in appoint-
ing these five hundred soldiers to be hanged, for, as
there is no medium between not promoting soldiers
and hanging them, he might justly have hanged the
whole regiment. He is not bound by any law to give
any soldier a captain's commission ; and therefore he is
perfectly just when he sends these military reprobates
to the gallows." Some of the auditors clap Tertullus's
argument: P. O. cries out that it is "most masterly:"
but a few of the soldiers are not quite satisfied, and
begin to question whether the holy service of the mild
Saviour of the world is not preferable to the Antino-
mian service of the absolute reprobater of countless
myriads of unborn infants.
2. The other flaw of Mr. Toplady's dilemma consists
in supposing that gospel worthiness is incompatible
with the gospel: whereas all the doctrines of justice,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 251
which make one half of the gospel, stand or fall with
the doctrine of evangelical worthiness. We will shout
it on the walls of mystic Geneva: they that follow
Christ shall walk with him in white, rather than they
that follow antichrist ; for they are [more] worthy.
Watch and pray always, that you may be counted
worthy to escape,, and to stand rewardable before the
*SW of man. The doctrine of Pharisaic merit we
abhor ; but the doctrine of rewardable obedience we
honour, defend, and extol. Believers, let not Mr. Top-
lady beguile you of your reward through voluntary
humility ; your persevering obedience shall be graciously
rewarded by a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give you at that
day; and then great shall be your reward in heaven.
For Christ himself hath said, Be faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life. lam the author
of eternal salvation to them that obey me. What
can be plainer than this gospel? Shall the absurd
cries of " Popery !" " merit !" &c., make us ashamed
of Christ's disciple ; of Christ's words ; and of Christ
himself? God forbid ! Let the Scriptures let God be
true, though Mr. Toplady should be mistaken.
Mr. Toplady says, page 38 : " If he [God] be not
obliged, in justice, to save mankind, then neither is he
unjust in passing by some men : nay, he might, had
he so pleased, have passed by the whole of mankind
without electing one individual of the fallen race, and
yet have continued holy, just, and good."
True ; he might have passed them by, without fix-
ing any blot upon his justice and goodness, if by passing
them by Mr. T. means leaving them in the wretched
state of seminal existence, in which state his vindictive
252 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
justice found them after Adam's fall. For then, an
unknown punishment, seminally endured, would
have borne just proportion to. an unknown sin, semi-
nally committed. But if, by passing- some men by,
this gentleman means, as Calvinism does, " absolutely
predestinating men to necessary, remediless sin, and
to unavoidable, eternal damnation :" we deny that God
might justly have passed by the whole of mankind :
we deny that he might justly have passed by ONE
single man, woman, or child. Nay, we affirm that, if
we conceive Satan, or the evil principle of Manes, as
exerting creative power, we could not conceive him
worse employed than in forming an absolute reprobate
in embryo ; that is, a creature unconditionally and ab-
solutely doomed to remediless wickedness and everlast-
ing fire.
As the simple are frequently imposed upon by an
artful substituting of the harmless word passing by for
the terrible word absolutely reprobating to death, I
beg leave to show, by a simile, the vast difference there
is between these two phrases. A king may, without
injustice, pass by all the beggars in the streets, without
giving them any bounty; because, if he does them no
good in thus passing them by, he does them no harm.
But suppose he called two captains of his guards, and
said to \h& first, If you see me pass by little dirty beg-
gars without giving them an alms, throw them into the
mire, or, if their parents, keep them there : then let the
second captain follow with his men, and take all the
dirty beggars who have been thus passed by, and
throw them, for being dirty, into a furnace hotter than
that of Nebuchadnezzar: suppose, I say, the king
passed his little indigent subjects by in this manner,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 253
would not his decree of preterition be a more than
diabolical piece of cruelty ? I need not inform my judi-
cious readers, that the passing by of the king repre-
sents Calvinian passing by, that is, absolute reproba-
tion to death : that the first captain, who throws little
beggars into the dirt, or keeps them there, represents
the decree of the means, which necessitates the repro-
bate to sin, or to continue in sin ; and that the second
captain represents the decree of the end, which neces-
sitates them to go to everlasting burnings.
CHAPTER XVII.
A RATIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.
WHEN it pleased God to create a world, his WISDOM
obliged him to create upon the plan that was most wor-
thy of him. Such a plan was undoubtedly that which
agreed best with all the divine perfections taken to-
gether. WISDOM and POWER absolutely required that
it should be a world of rational, as well as irrational
creatures ; of free, as well as of necessary agents ;
such a world displayed far better what St. Paul calls
Tro/bTRu/aAof ao(j>ia, the multifarious, variegated WIS-
DOM of God, as well as his infinite POWER in making,
ruling, and overruling various orders of beings.
It could not be expected that myriads of free agents,
who necessarily fell short of absolute perfection, would
all behave alike. Here God's GOODNESS demanded
that those who behaved well should be rewarded ; his
SOVEREIGNTY insisted, that those who behaved ill
should be punished ; and his DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
254 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER,
and EQUITY required, that those who made the best
use of their talents should be entitled to the highest
rewards ; while those who abused divine favours most,
should have the severest punishments ; MERCY reserv-
ing to itself the right of raising rewards, and of allevi-
ating punishments, in a way suited to all the other
divine attributes.
This being granted, (and I do not see how any man
of reason and piety can deny it,) it evidently follows :
1. That a world in which various orders of free, as
well as necessary agents, are admitted, is most per-
fect. 2. That this world, having been formed upon such
a wise plan, was the most perfect that could possibly be
created. 3. That, in the very nature of things, evil
may, although there is no necessity it should, enter
into such a world ; else it could not be a world of
free agents who are candidates for distributive jus-
tice. 4. That the blemishes and disorders of the na-
tural world are only penal consequences of disobedience
of free agents. 5. That from such penal disorders we
may indeed conclude that man has abused free will,
but not that God deals in free wrath. Only admit,
therefore, the free will of rationals, and you cannot but
fall in love with our Creator's plan, dark and horrid as
it appears when it is viewed through the smoked glass
of the fatalist, the Manichee, or the rigid predestina-
rian.
But Mr. Toplady inquires, " How came moral evil to
be permitted, when it might have been hindered, by
a Being of infinite goodness, power, and wisdom ?"
Answer 1. When God placed man in paradise, far
from permitting him to sin, he strictly forbade him to
do it. Is it right then in Mr. Toplady to call God the
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 255
permitler of sin, when the Scriptures represent him as
the forbidder of it ? Nay, is it not very wrong to
pour shame upon the holiness of God, and absurdity
upon the reason of man, by making a Calvinistic world
believe that forbidding- and threatening is one and
the same thing with permitting and giving leave ;
or, at least, that the difference is so trifling, that all the
sagacity of man will find it difficult, not to say im-
possible, clearly to point it out ?
2. I pretend to a very little share of all the sagacity
of man; and yet, without being nonplused at all, I
hope to show, by the following illustration, that there is
a prodigious difference between not hindering, and
design, in the case of the entering in of sin.
A general wants to try the faithfulness of his soldiers,
that he may reward those \vhoivill fight, and punish
those who will go over to the enemy ; in order to dis-
play, before all the army, his love of bravery, his hatred
of cowardice, his remunerative goodness, and his im-
partial justice. To this end he issues out a proclama-
tion, importing that all the volunteers who shall gallantly
keep the field in such an important engagement shall
be made captains ; and all those who shall go over to
the enemy shall be shot. I suppose him endued with
infinite wisdom, knowledge, and power. By his om-
niscience he sees that some will desert ; by his omni-
potence he could, indeed, hinder them from doing^ it ;
for he could chain them all to so many posts stuck in
the ground around their colours: but hisinfinite wisdom
does not permit him to do it ; as it would be a piece of
madness in him to defeat, by forcible means, his design
of trying the courage of his soldiers, in order to reward
and punish them according to their gallant or cow-
256 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
ardly behaviour in the field. And therefore, though he
is persuaded that many will be shot, he puts his procla-
mation in force, because, upon the whole, it will best an-
swer his wise designs. However, as he does not desire,
much less design, that any of his soldiers should be
shot for desertion, he does what his wisdom permits him
to do to prevent their going over to the enemy ; and yet,
for the above-mentioned reason, he does not absolutely
hinder them from doing it. Now in such a case, who
does not see that the difference in not absolutely hin-
dering and designing is as discernible as the differ-
ence between reason and folly or between wisdom
and wickedness ? By such dangerous insinuations as
that which this illustration exposes, the simple are
imperceptibly led to confound Christ with Belial, and
to think there is little difference between the celestial
Parent of good, and the Manichean parent of good and
evil ; the Janus of the fatalists, who wears two faces,
an angel's face and a devil's face; a mongrel, imaginary
god this, whose fancied ways are, like his fancied na-
ture, full of duplicity.
3. To the preceding illustration I beg leave to add
the following argument. No unprejudiced person will,
I hope, refuse his assent to the truth of this proposi-
tion. A world wherein there are rational free agents,
like angels and men ; irrational free agents, like
dogs and horses ; necessary agents, like plants and
trees ; and dead matter, like stones and clods of earth :
such a world, I say, is as much superior in perfection
to a world where there are only necessary agents and
dead matter, as a place inhabited by learned men and
curious beasts contains more wonders than one which
is only stocked with fine flowers and curious stones.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 257
If this be granted, it necessarily follows that this world
was perfect, calculated to display His infinite power and
manifold wisdom. Now, in the very nature of things,
rational free agents, being capable of knowing their
Creator, owe to him gratitude and obedience ; and to
one another, assistance and love ; and therefore they
are under a law, which [as free agents] they may
keep or break, as they please.
" But could not God necessitate free agents to keep
the law they are under ?"
, Yes, says Calvinism, for he is endued with infinite
power : but Scripture, good sense, and matter of fact
say no : because, although God is endued with infinite
power, he is also endued with infinite wisdom. And it
would be as absurd to create free agents in order to
necessitate them, as to do a thing in order to undo it.
Besides, [I repeat it,] God's distributive justice could
never be displayed, nor could free obedience be paid
by rationals, and crowned by the Rewarder and Judge
of all the earth, unless rationals were free-willing crea-
tures ; and therefore, the moment you absolutely neces-
sitate them, you destroy them as free agents, and rob
God of two of his most glorious titles that of Re-
warder and that of Judge. Thus we account for the
origin of evil in a Scriptural and rational manner, with-
out the help of fatalism, Manicheeism, or Calvinism.
258 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER XVIII.
DIFFICULTIES REMOVED.
SECTION I.
REMARKS ON 1 SAMUEL II, 25. THEY [THE SONS OF ELl]
HEARKENED NOT TO THE VOICE OF THEIR FATHER, BE-
CAUSE THE LORD WOULD SLAY THEM.
THIS passage is introduced by Mr. Toplady to show
that the Lord secures the end by securing the means.
By the decree of the means the Lord secured the disobe-
dience of these wicked men, in order to accomplish the
decree of the end, that is, their absolute destruction.
To this Calvinian insinuation Mr. Fletcher answers :
1. That the sons of Eli, who had turned the taberna-
cle into a house of ill fame, and a den of thieves, had
personally deserved a judicial reprobation ; God, there-
fore, could justly give them up to a reprobate mind, in
consequence of their personal, avoidable, repeated, and
aggravated crimes.
2. The word killing does not here necessarily imply
eternal damnation. The Lord killed, by a lion, the
man of God from Judah, for having stopped in Bethel :
he killed Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire:
he killed the child of David and Bathsheba : he killed
many of the Corinthians for their irreverent partaking
of the Lord's supper : but the sin unto [bodily] DEATH is
not the sin unto eternal death ; for St. Paul informs,
that the body is sometimes given up to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved
in the day of the Lord, 1 Cor. v, 5.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 259
3. The Hebrew particle, o, which is rendered in our
translation because, means also therefore : and so our
translators themselves have rendered it after St. Paul
and the Septuagint, Psa. cxvi, 10. I believed, o, and
therefore will I speak : see 2 Cor. iv, 13. If they had
done their part as well in translating the verse quoted
by Mr. Toplady, the doctrine of free wrath would have
gone propless, and we should have had these edifying
words: They [the sons of Eli] hearkened not to the
voice of their father, and therefore the Lord would
slay them. Thus the voluntary sin of free agents
would be represented as the cause of their deserved
reprobation ; and not their undeserved reprobation as
the cause of their necessary sin.
SECTION II.
EXPLANATION OF ACTS IV, 27, 28.
For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom
thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were ga-
thered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and
thy counsel determined before to be done.
With respect to this text, if it be rightly translated,
it is explained by these words of St. Peter, Acts ii, 23,
which declare that Christ was delivered by the deter-
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God: '-de-
livered" as a ransom for all. If rightly translated
with Episcopius, and some other learned critics, I doubt
it is not why should it not be read thus ? For of a
truth against thy holy child Jesus, (both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of
260 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
Israel, were gathered together,} for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined to be done. By
putting the clause both Herod, &c. } in a parenthesis, you
have this evangelical sense, which gives no handle for
the pleaders for sin : Both Herod and Pilate, fyc., were
gathered together against thy holy child Jesus, whom
thou hast anointed for to do whatsoever thy hand and
counsel determined to be done. I prefer this reading
to the common for the following reasons : 1. It is per-
fectly agreeable to the Greek ; and the peculiar con-
struction of the sentence is expressive of the peculiar
earnestness with which the apostle prayed. 2. It is
attended with no Manichean inconveniency. 3. It is
more agreeable to the context. For if the Sanhedrim
was gathered by God's direction and decree, in order
to threaten the apostles, with what propriety could they
say, [verse 29,] Now, Lord, behold their threatening ?
And, 4. It is strongly supported by verse 30, where Pe-
ter [after having observed, verses 27, 28, according to
our reading, that God had anointed his holy child Jesus
to do all the miracles which he did on earth] prays, that
now Christ is gone to heaven, the effects of this power-
ful anointing may continue, and signs and wonders
may be done by the name of his holy child Jesus.
This passage then, and all those which Mr. Toplady
has produced, or may yet produce, only prove, 1. That
God foresees the evil which is in the heart of the
wicked, and their future steps in peculiar circumstances,
with ten thousand times more clearness and cer-
tainty than a good huntsman foresees all the windings,
doublings, and shifts of a hunted fox : and that he over-
rules their wicked counsels to the execution of his own
wise and holy designs. a.s a good rider overrules the
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 261
mad prancings of a vicious horse, to the display of his
perfect skill in horsemanship, and to the treading down
of the enemy in a day of battle. 2. That God catches
the wise in their own craftiness; and to punish the
wicked, he permits their wicked counsels to be defeated,
and their best concerted schemes to prove abortive.
3. That he frequently tries the faith and exercises the
patience of good men, by letting loose the wicked upon
them, as in the case of Job and Christ. 4. That he
often punishes the wickedness of one man by letting
loose upon him the wickedness of another man ; and
that he frequently avenges himself of one wicked na-
tion by letting loose upon it the wickedness of another
nation. Thus he let Absalom and Shimei loose
upon David. Thus the Lord let loose the Philistines
upon disobedient Israel, and the Romans upon the ob-
durate Jews. 5. That he sometimes lets a wicked man
loose upon himself, as in the case of Ahithophel, Na-
bal, and Judas, who became their own executioners.
6. That when wicked men are going to commit some
atrocious wickedness, he sometimes inclines their hearts
so to relent that they commit a less crime than they
intended. For instance : when Joseph's brethren were
going to starve him to death, by providential circum-
stances God inclined their hearts to spare his life :
thus, instead of starving him, they only sold him into
Egypt.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER XIX.
A CAUTION AGAINST THE TENET THAT "WHATEVER
IS, IS RIGHT."
THAT " whatever is, is right, or will answer some
great end in relation to the whole," says Mr. Toplady,
" is a first principle of the Bible and of sound reason."
Whatever the true God works is undoubtedly right.
But if the Deity absolutely works all things in all men,
good and bad, it evidently follows, 1. That the two-prin-
cipled Deity preached by Manes is the true God.
2. That the bad principle of this double deity works
wickedness in the wicked, as necessarily as the good
principle works righteousness in the righteous. And,
3. That the original of wickedness being divine, wick-
edness is as right as the Deity from whom it flows.
Error is never more dangerous than when it looks a
little like truth. But when it is imposed upon the sim-
ple as a first principle of the Bible and sound reason,
it makes dreadful work. How conclusively will a rigid
predestinarian reason if he says, "Whatever is, is
right ; and therefore sin is right. Again : it is wrong
to hinder what is right: sin is right; and therefore
it is wrong to hinder sin. Once more : we ought to
do what is right : sin is right ; and therefore we ought
to commit sin."
Now, in opposition to Mr. Toplady's first principle,
I assert as a first principle of reason, that, though it
was right in God not absolutely to hinder sin, yet sin is
always wrong. "O, but God permitted it, and will
get himself glory by displaying his vindictive justice in
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 263
punishing it : for ' the ministration of condemnation is
glorious} " This argument has deluded many a pious
Calvinist. To overthrow it, however, I need only ob-
serve, that the ministration of righteousness exceeds
in glory the ministration of condemnation.
In what respect is sin right? Can it be right in
respect of God, if it brings him less glory than right-
eousness? Can it be right in respect of man, if it
bring temporal misery upon all, and eternal misery upon
some? Can it be right in respect of the Adamic law,
the law of Moses, or the law of Christ? Certainly
no : for sin is equally the transgression of all these laws.
" O, but it is right with respect to the evangelical pro-
mise." By no means : for the evangelical promise, vul-
garly called the gospel, testifies of Christ, the destroyer
of sin, and offers us a remedy against sin. Now if sin
were right, the gospel which remedies it, and Christ
who destroys it, would be wrong. I conclude then,
that if sin be right, neither with respect of God, nor
with respect of man ; neither with regard to the law,
nor with regard to the gospel; it is right in no shape,
it is wrong in every point of view.
" But why did God permit it ?" Indeed, he never
did properly permit it. unless to forbid in the most sol-
emn manner, and under the severest penalty, is the
same thing as to permit. But, Why did not God ab-
solutely hinder sin ?" I answer, 1. Because his wisdom
saw that a world where free agents and necessary
agents are mixed, is better [all things considered] than
a world stocked with nothing but necessary agents, i. e.,
creatures absolutely hindered from sinning. 2. Be-
cause his distributive justice could be displayed no
other way than by the creation of accountable free
264 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
agents, made with an eye to a day of judgment.
3. Because it would be as -absurd to necessitate free
agents, as to bid free agents be, that they might not be
free agents ; as foolish as to form accountable crea-
tures, that they might not be accountable. And, 4. Be-
cause when God saw that the free agency of his
creatures wpuld introduce sin, he determined to over-
rule it, or remedy it in such a manner as would, upon
the whole, render this world, with all the voluntary
evil and voluntary good in it, better than a world of
necessary agents, where nothing but necessary good
would have been displayed : an inferior sort of good
this, which would no more have admitted of the exer-
cise of God's political wisdom and distributive justice,
than the excellence of precious stones and fine flowers
admits of laws, rewards, and punishments.
Should the reader ask how far we may safely go to
meet the truth which borders most on Mr. Toplady's
false principle, that " whatever is, is right .?" I answer,
1. We may grant, nay, we ought to assert, that God
will get himself glory every way. Evangelical grace
and just wrath minister to his praise, though not
equally : and therefore God willeth not primarily the
death of his creatures. Punishment is his strange
work; and he delighteth more in the exercise of his
remunerative goodness than in the exercise of his vin-
dictive justice. 2. Hence it appears, that the wrath of
man and the rage of the devil will turn to God's praise:
but it is only to his inferior praise. For though the
blessed will sing loud hallelujahs to divine justice when
vengeance shall overtake the ungodly ; and though the
consciences of the ungodly will give God glory, and
testify that he is holy in all his works, and righteous in
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 265
all his vindictive ways ; yet, this glory will be only the
glory of the ministration of condemnation : a dispen-
sation this which is inferior to the dispensation of right-
eous mercy. Hence it appears, that those who die in
their sins would have brought more glory to God by
choosing righteousness and life, than they do by choos-
ing death in the error of their ways. But still, this
inferior praise, arising from the condemnation and
punishment of ungodly free agents this inferior
praise, I say, mixed with the superior praise arising
. from the justification and rewards of godly free agents,
will far exceed the praise which might have accrued to
God from the unavoidable obedience and absurd re-
wards of necessitated agents of angels and men abso-
lutely bound to obey by a necessitating grace, like that
which rigid bound-vvillers preach ; were we even to sup-
pose that this forcible grace had Calvinistically caught all
rational creatures in a net of finished salvation, and had
drawn them all to heaven as irresistibly as Simon Pe-
ter drew the net to land full of great fishes, a hun-
dred and fifty and three. For, before the Lawgiver
and Judge of all the earth, the unnecessitated, volun-
tary goodness of one angel, or one man, is more excel-
lent than the necessary goodness of a world of creatures
as unavoidably and passively virtuous as a diamond is
unavoidably and passively bright.
With respect to the second part of Mr. Toplady's
doctrine, that whatever is, is right, because^' it will
answer some great end, fyc., in relation to the whole;"
it is nothing but logical paint put on a false principle
to cover its deformity ; for error can imitate Jezebel,
who laid natural paint on her withered face to fill up
her hideous wrinkles, and impose on the spectators. I
12
266 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
may perhaps prove it by an illustration. I want to de-
monstrate that cheating, extortion, litigiousness, break-
ing the peace, robberies, and murders are all right ;
and I do it by asserting "that they answer some great
ends in relation to the whole; for they employ the
parliament in making laws to prevent, end, or punish
them; they afford business to all the judges, magis-
trates, lawyers, sheriffs, constables, jailers, turnkeys,
thief-catchers, and executioners in the kingdom: and
when robbers and murderers are hanged, they reflect
praise upon the government which extirpates them :
they strike terror into the wicked ; and their untimely,
dreadful end, sets off the happiness of a virtuous course
of life, and the bliss which crowns the death of the
righteous. Besides, many murderers and robbers have
been brought to Christ for pardon and salvation, like
the dying thief, who by his robbery had the good luck
to meet Christ on the cross: so that his own gallows, as
well as our Lord's cross, proved the tree of life to that
happy felon." The mischievous absurdity of these
pleas for the excellence of wickedness puts me in mind
of the arguments by which a greedy publican in my
parish once exculpated himself, when I reproved him
for encouraging tippling and drunkenness. " The
more ale we sell," said he. " the greater is the king's
revenue. If it were not for us the king could not live ;
nor could he pay the fleet and army : and if we had
neither fleet nor army, we should soon fall into the
hands of the French." So great are the ends which
tippling answers in its relation to the whole British
empire, if we may believe a tapster, who pleads for
drunkenness as plausibly as some good mistaken men
do for all manner of wickedness.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 267
From the whole, if I am not mistaken, we may safely
conclude that, though all God's works are right, yet
sin, the work of fallen angels and fallen men, is never
right ; and that, though the universe, with all its sin-
fulness, is better than a sinless world necessitated to
be sinless by the destruction of free agents, yet, as
there is so much sin in the world, through the wrong
use which free agents make of their powers, Mr. T.
advances an unscriptural and irrational maxim when
he says, that whatever is, is right. And he imposes
upon us an Antinomian paradox when he asserts that
this dangerous maxim " is a first principle of the Bible
and of sound reason." I repeat it : it was right in God
to create free agents, to put them under a practicable
law, and to determine to punish them according to
their works, if they wantonly broke that law ; but it
could never be right in free agents to break it, unless
God had bound them to do it by making Calvinian
decrees necessarily productive of sin and wickedness.
And supposing God had forbid free agents to sin by his
law, and had necessitated [which is more than to
enjoin] them to sin by Calvinian decrees ; we desire
Mr. T. to show how it could have been right in God
to forbid sin by law, to necessitate men to sin by a
decree, and to send them to eternal fire for not keeping
a law which he had necessitated them to break.
268 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
CHAPTER XX.
A MIDDLE WAY BETWEEN CALVINIAN PROVIDENCE
AND CHANCE.
MR. TOPLADY, after charging Pelagianism on Mr.
Wesley, says, " I defy the Pelagian to strike out a
middle way between providence and chance."
This challenge is too important to be disregarded.
There are two opposite errors with respect to provi-
dence. The first is that of the Epicurean philosophers,
who thought that God does not concern himself about
our sins, but leaves us to go on as we please, and as
chance directs. The second is that of the rigid pre-
destinarians, who imagine that God absolutely predes-
tinates sin, and necessarily brings it about to accom-
plish his absolute decrees of eternally saving some men
through Christ, and eternally damning all the rest of
mankind through Adam. Of these two erroneous sen-
timents the latter appears to us the worse, seeing it is
better to represent God as doing nothing than to repre-
sent him as doing wickedness. The truth lies between
these two opinions; God's providence is peculiarly
concerned about sin, but it does by no means necessa-
rily bring it about. By this reasonable doctrine we
answer Mr. T.'s challenge, and strike out the middle
way between his error and that of Epicurus.
If you ask how far God's providence is concerned
about sin ? we reply, that it is concerned about it four
ways : First, in morally hindering the internal com-
mission of it before it is committed ; secondly, in pro-
videntially hindering [at times] the external commis-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 269
sion of it, when it has been intentionally committed ;
thirdly, in marking, bounding, and overruling it while
it is committed ; and fourthly, in bringing about means
of properly pardoning or exemplarily punishing it after
it has been committed. Dwell we a moment on each
of these particulars.
1. Before sin is committed, divine providence is
engaged in morally hindering the internal commission
of it. In order to this, God does two things : First, he
forbids sin by natural, verbal, or written laws ; and
secondly, he keeps up our powers of body and soul ;
enduing us with liberty, whereby we may abstain, like
moral agents, from the commission of sin ; furnishing
us besides with a variety of motives and helps to resist
every temptation to sin. A great variety this, which
includes God's threatenings and promises ; all his ex-
hortations and warnings ; all the checks of our con-
sciences and the strivings of the Holy Spirit ; all the
counsels of good men, and the exemplary punishments
of the wicked ; together with the tears and blood of
Christ, and other peculiar means of grace, which God
has appointed to keep Christians from sin, and to
strengthen them in the performance of their duty.
2. When sin is committed in the intention, God
frequently prevents the outward commission, or the full
completion of it, by peculiar interpositions of his provi-
dence. Thus he hindered the men of Sodom from
injuring Lot, by striking them with blindness ; he hin-
dered Pharaoh from enslaving the Israelites, by drown-
ing him in the Red Sea ; he hindered Balaam from
cursing Israel, by putting a bridle in his mouth; he
hindered Jeroboam from hurting the prophet who came
out of Judah, by drying up his royal hand when he
270 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
stretched it forth, saying, "Lay hold on him? he
hindered Herod from destroying the holy child Jesus,
by warning Joseph to flee into Egypt, &c., &c. The
Scriptures and the history of the world are full of ac-
counts of the ordinary and extraordinary interpositions
of divine providence, respecting the detection of intended
mischief, and the preservation of persons and states,
whom the wicked intended to destroy. And to go no
farther than England, the providential discovery of the
gunpowder plot is as remarkable an instance as any
that God keeps a watchful eye upon the counsels of
men, and confounds their devices whenever he pleases.
3. During the commission of sin, God's providence is
engaged in marking it, in setting bounds to it, or over-
ruling it, in a manner quite contrary to the expectation
of sinners. When Joseph's brethren contrived the get-
ting money by selling him into Egypt, God contrived
the preservation of Jacob's household. Thus, when
Haman contrived a gallows to hang Mordecai, the Lord
so overruled this cruel design that Haman was hung on
that very gallows. Thus, when Satan wanted to de-
stroy Job, God set bounds to his rage, and bid the fierce
accuser spare the good man's life. That envious fiend
did his worst to make the patient saint curse God to
his face ; but the Lord so overruled his malice that it
worked for good to Job : for when Job's patience had
had its perfect work, all his misfortunes ended in double
prosperity, and all his tempestuous tossings raised him
to a higher degree of perfection. Thus, again, to pre-
serve the seed of the righteous, God formerly kept a
hundred prophets, and seven hundred true Israelites,
from the cruelty of Jezebel ; and for the sake of the
sincere Christians in Judea, he shortened the great
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 271
tribulation spoken of Matt, xxiv, 22. When the un-
godly are most busy in sinning, the providence of God
is most employed in counterworking their sin, in put-
ting bounds to their desperate designs, and in making
a way for the godly to escape out of temptation, that
they may be able to bear it : for the rod of the un-
godly cometh not [with its full force] into the lot of
the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their
hand into iniquity ', through such powerful and lasting
temptations as would make it impossible for them to
, stand firm in the way of duty, Psa. cxxv, 3.
4. When sin is actually committed, the providence
of God, in conjunction with his mercy and justice, is
employed either in using means to bring sinners to
repentance, confession, and pardon, or in inflicting upon
them such punishments as seem most proper to divine
wisdom. To be convinced of it, read the history of
man's redemption by Jesus Christ ; mark the various
steps by which providence brings the guilty to convic-
tion, the penitent to pardon, the finally impenitent to
destruction, and all to some degree of punishment. By
what an amazing train of providential dispensations
were Joseph's brethren, for instance, brought to remem-
ber, lament, and smart for their cruel behaviour to him !
And how did God, by various afflictions, bring his re-
bellious people to consider their ways, and to humble
themselves before him in the land of tlieir captivity !
Wha; an amazing work had divine providence in
checking and punishing the sin of Pharaoh in Egypt,
that of the Israelites in the wilderness, that of David
and his house in Jerusalem, and that of Nebuchad-
nezzar and Belshazzar in Babylon !
Evangelically and providentially opening the way for
272 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
the return of sinners, and repaying obdurate offenders
to their faces, make one half of God's work, as he is
the gracious and righteous Governor of men. We can-
not doubt it, if we take notice of the innumerable means
by which conversions and punishments are brought
about. To touch only upon punishments : some ex-
tend to the sea, others to the land ; some spread over
particular districts, others over whole kingdoms ; some
affect a whole family, and others a whole community ;
some affect the soul, and others the body; some fall
only upon one limb, or one of the senses, others upon
the whole animal frame and all the senses ; some affect
our well-being, others our being itself; some are con-
fined to this world, and others extend to a future state ;
some are of a temporal and others of an eternal nature.
Now, since providence, in subservience to divine justice,
manages all these punishments and innumerable con-
sequences, how mistaken is Mr. T. when he insinuates
that our doctrine supposes God to be an idle spectator
while sin is committed.
5. With respect to the gracious tempers of the right-
eous, we believe that they all flow [though without
Calvinian necessity] from the free gift which is come
upon all men, and from the light which enlighteneth
every man that cometh into the world. And as to
their good works, we are so far from excluding divine
grace and providence, in order to exalt absolute free
will, that we assert, Not one good work would ever be
begun, continued, or ended, if divine grace within us,
and divine providence without us, did not animate our
souls, support our bodies, help our infirmities, and [to
use the language of our church] "prevent, accompany,
and follow us" through the whole. And yet in all
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 273
moral, and in many natural actions, we are as free
from the laws of Calvinian necessity as from those of
the great mogul.
6. With regard to the families and kingdoms of this
world, we assert that God's providence either baffles,
controls, or sets bounds to the bad designs of the
wicked ; while it has the principal hand in succeeding
the good designs of the righteous, as often as they have
any success: for, except the Lord keep the city, as
well as the watchman, the watchman waketh but in
vain. And with respect to the course of nature, we
believe that it is ordered by his unerring counsel. With
a view to maintain order in the universe, his providen-
tial wisdom made admirable laws of attraction, repul-
sion, generation, fermentation, vegetation, and dissolu-
tion. And his providential power and watchfulness
are, though without either labour or anxiety, continually
engaged in conducting all things according to those
laws ; except when, on proper occasions, he suspends
the influence of his own natural decrees ; and then fire
may cease to burn, iron to sink in water, and hungry
lions to devour their helpless prey. Nay, at the beck
of Omnipotence, a widow's cruise of oil and barrel of
meal shall be filled without the help of the olive-tree,
and the formality of a growing harvest ; a dry rod shall
suddenly blossom, and a green fig-tree shall instantly
be dried up ; garments in daily use shall not wear out
in forty years ; a prophet shall live forty days without
food ; the liquid waves shall afford a solid walk to a
believing apostle ; a fish shall bring back the piece of
money which it had swallowed ; and water shall be
turned into wine without the gradual process of vege-
tation.
19*
1^
274 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
If Mr. T. do us the justice to weigh these six obser-
vations upon the prodigious work which God's provi-
dence carries on in the moral, spiritual, and natural
world, according to our doctrine, we hope he will no
more intimate that we atheistically deny, or heretically
defame, that divine attribute.
To conclude : we exactly steer our course between
rigid free-willers, who suppose they are independent
on God's providence, and rigid bound-willers, who
fancy they do nothing but what fate or God's provi-
dence absolutely binds them to do. We equally detest
the error of Epicurus and that of Mr, Toplady. The
former taught that God took no notice of sin ; the latter
says that God, by efficacious permissions and irre-
sistible decrees, absolutely necessitates men to commit
it. But we maintain, that although God never abso-
lutely necessitated his creatures to sin, yet his provi-
dence is remarkably employed about sin in all the
above described ways. And if Mr. Toplady will call
us defamers of divine providence and Atheists, be-
cause we dare not represent God, directly or indirectly,
as the author of sin, we rejoice in so honourable a
reproach; and humbly trust that this, as well as all
manner of similar evil, is rashly said of us for right-
eousness 1 sake.
*.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 275
CHAPTER XXI.
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE following extracts are taken from Mr. Fletcher's
" Last Check to Antinomianism ; a polemical essay on
the twin doctrines of Christian imperfection and death
purgatory." The compiler finds it exceedingly difficult
to make extracts from this volume agreeably to the plan
he has proposed, without doing an injury to the writer ;
on account that the whole essay is so excellent, and
each part so connected, the whole must be read in order
to understand the subject, or duly appreciate the talents
of the author. In this selection he has done the best
he could, and can only hope that what he has here
presented will serve to show the reader that Mr. Fletcher
is an admirable writer on this as well as on the fore-
going subjects, and induce him to procure and read the
essay in its original form. But especially he hopes to
furnish the reader with a condensed view of the argu-
ments by which the doctrine of holiness is supported,
and the practicability of answering the objections which
are usually urged against it. He hopes, also, that such
will be the force with which the arguments will strike
the reader, that he will be induced to see what is his
duty and privilege as a Christian, and be excited
earnestly to seek for the attainment, in his own per-
sonal experience, of all the heights and depths of
PERFECT LOVE.
T. S.
-
276 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
SECTION I.
THE DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION STATED.
WHEN a late fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, at-
tacked the doctrine of sincere obedience which 1 defend
in the Checks, he said with great truth, " Sincere obe-
dience, as a condition, will lead you unavoidably up
to PERFECT obedience" What he urged as an argu-
ment against our views of the gospel is one of the
reasons by which we defend them, and perhaps the
strongest of all : for our doctrine leads as naturally to
holiness and perfect obedience, as that of our opponents
does to sin and imperfection. If the streams of Mr.
Hill's doctrine never stop till they have carried men
into a sea of indwelling sin, where he leaves them to
struggle with waves of immorality, or with billows of
corruption, all the days of their life ; it is evident that
our doctrine, which is the very reverse of his, must take
us to a sea of indwelling holiness, where we calmly
outride all the storms which Satan raised to destrov
Job's perfection, and where all our pursuing corrup-
tions are as much destroyed as the Egyptians were in
the Red Sea.
Reader, I plead for the most precious liberty in the
world heart liberty ; for liberty from the most galling
of all yokes, the yoke of heart corruption. Let not
thy prejudice turn a deaf ear to the important plea. If
thou candidly, believingly, and practically receive the
truth as it is in Jesus, it shall make thec free, and
thou shall be free indeed.
Most of the controversies which arise between men
who fear God spring from the hurry with which some
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 277
men find fault with what they have not yet examined.
Why does Mr. Hill, at the head of the Calvinists,
attack the doctrine of Christian perfection which we
contend for? Is it because he and they are sworn
enemies to righteousness, and zealous protectors of
iniquity ? Not at all. The grand reason, next to their
Calvinian prejudices, is their inattention to the question,
and to the arguments by which our sentiments are
supported. If producing light is the best method of
opposing darkness, setting the doctrine of CKristian
perfection in a proper point of view will be the best
means of opposing the doctrines of Christian imper-
fection and of a death purgatory.
Christian perfection! Why should the harmless
phrase offend us? The word perfection comes from
the Latin perficio, to perfect, to finish, to accomplish.
We give the name Christian perfection to that ma-
turity of grace and holiness which established adult
believers attain to under the Christian dispensation ;
and thus we distinguish that maturity of grace both
from the ripeness of grace which belongs to the Jews
below us, and from the ripeness of glory which belongs
to departed saints above us. Hence it appears, that
by Christian perfection we mean nothing but the
cluster and maturity of the graces which compose the
Christian church militant.
In other words, Christian perfection is a spiritual
constellation made up of these gracious stars, perfect
repentance, perfect faith, perfect humility, perfect
meekness, 1 perfect self-denial, perfect resignation,
perfect hope, perfect charity for our visible enemies
as well as for our earthly relations ; and, above all,
perfect love for our invisible God, through the explicit
278 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
knowledge of pur Mediator, Jesus Christ. And as the
last star is always accompanied by all the others, as
Jupiter is by his satellites, we frequently use, as St.
John, the phrase perfect love instead of the word per-
fection, understanding by it the pure love of God shed
abroad in the hearts of established believers.
SECTION II.
IS CHRISTIAN PERFECTION A SINLESS PERFECTION ?
SHOULD Mr. Hill ask if the Christian perfection
which we contend for is a sinless perfection, we reply,
Sin is the transgression of a divine law, and man
may be considered either as being under the anti-
evangelical, Christless, remediless law of our Crea-
tor, or as being under the evangelical, mediatorial,
remedying law of our Redeemer ; and the question
must be answered according to the nature of these two
laws.
With respect to the first, that is, the Adamic, Christ-
less law of innocence and paradisiacal perfection, we
utterly renounce the doctrine of sinless perfection, for
three reasons : 1. We are conceived and born in a
state of sinful degeneracy, whereby that law is already
virtually broken ; 2. Our mental and bodily powers are
so enfeebled that we cannot help actually breaking that
law in numberless instances, even after our full con-
version ; and, 3. When once we have broken that law,
it considers us as transgressors for ever : nor can it any
more pronounce us sinless than the rigorous law which
condemns a man to be hanged for murder can absolve
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 279
a murderer, let his repentance and faith be ever so
perfect.
But Christ has so completely fulfilled our Creator's
paradisiacal law of innocence, that we shall not be
judged by that law, but by a law adapted to our pre-
sent state and circumstances a milder law, called the
law of Christ, i. e., the Mediator's law, which is, like
himself, full of evangelical grace and truth. We are,
therefore, not without law to God, nor yet under a
Christless law with Adam, but under a law to Christ,
that is, under the law of our royal Priest, the evangeli-
cal law of liberty. A more gracious law this, which
allows a sincere repentance, and is fulfilled by loving
faith. Now, as we shall be judged by this law of
liberty, we maintain not only that it may, but also
that it must, be kept ; and that it is actually kept by
established Christians, according to the last and fullest
edition of it, which is that of the New Testament.
Nor do we think it " shocking 1 " to hear an adult be-
liever say, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me. free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law [of innocence, or the Mosaic
law] could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God, sending his own Son, condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might
be [evangelically] fulfilled in us, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit.
It is this view of the law under which we are placed
that St. James takes when he says, So speak ye, and
so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of
liberty, James ii, 12. Now, as a reasonable father
never requires of his child who is only ten years old
the works of one who is thirty years of age, so our
280 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
heavenly Father never expects of us, in our debilitated
state, the obedience of immortal Adam in paradise, or
the uninterrupted worship of sleepless angels in heaven.
We are persuaded, therefore, that for Christ's sake he
is pleased with an humble obedience to our present
light, and a loving exertion of our present powers;
accepting our gospel services according to what we
have, and not according- to what we have not. Nor
dare we call that loving exertion of our present power
sin, lest by so doing we should contradict the Scrip-
tures, confound sin and obedience, and remove all the
landmarks which divide the devil's common from the
Lord's vineyard.
Although adult, established believers, or perfect
Christians, may admit of many involuntary mistakes,
errors, and faults, and of many involuntary improprie-
ties of speech and behaviour ; yet, so long as their will
is bent on doing God's will so long as they walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit so long as they
fulfil the law of liberty by pure love, they do not sin
according to the gospel : because (evangelically speak-
ing) sin is the transgression, and love is the fulfilling'
of the law. Far, then, from thinking that there is the
least absurdity in saying daily. Vouchsafe to keep me
this day without sin, we doubt not but in the believers
who walk in the light as Christ is in the light, that
deep petition is answered ; the righteousness of the law,
which they are under, is fulfilled ; and, of consequence,
an evangelically sinless perfection is daily experienced.
I say evangelically sinless, because, without the word
evangelically, the phrase sinless perfection gives occa-
sion for cavilling to those who seek it, as Mr. Wesley
intimates in the following quotation, which is taken
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 281
from his Plain Account of Christian Perfection:
" 1. Not only sin, properly so called, that is, a volun-
tary transgression of a known law, but sin, improperly
so called, that is, an involuntary transgression of a
divine law, known or unknown, needs the atoning
blood. 2. I believe there is no such perfection in this
life as excludes these involuntary transgressions, which
I apprehend to be consequent on the ignorance and
mistakes inseparable from mortality. 3. Therefore,
sinless perfection is a phrase I never use, lest I should
seem to contradict myself. 4. I believe a person filled
with the love of God is still liable to these involuntary
transgressions. 5. Such transgressions you may call
sins, if you please : I do not."
SECTION III.
SEVERAL PLAUSIBLE OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIAN PERFEC-
TION ANSWERED.
"!T will supersede the use of mortification and
watchfulness ; for if sin be dead, what need have we
to mortify it and watch against it ?"
This objection has some plausibility ; I shall there-
fore answer it various ways. 1. If Adam, in his state
of paradisiacal perfection, needed perfect watchfulness
and perfect mortification, how much more do we need
them, who find the tree of knowledge of good and
evil planted, not only in the midst of our gardens, but
in the midst of our houses, markets, and churches?
2. When we are delivered from sin, are we delivered
from peccability and temptation ? When the inward
man of sin is dead, is the devil dead? Is the cor-
282 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
ruption that is in the world destroyed ? And have \ve
not still our five senses, and our appetites, to keep with
all diligence, as well as our hearts, that the tempter
may not enter into us, or that we may not enter
into his temptations ? Lastly, Jesus Christ, as son of
Mary, was a perfect man. But how was he kept so
to the end 1 Was it not by keeping his mouth with a
bridle while the ungodly were in his sight, and by
guarding all his senses with perfect assiduity, that the
wicked one might not touch them to his hurt ? And
if Christ, our head, kept his human perfection only
through watchfulness and constant self-denial, is it not
absurd to suppose that his perfect members can keep
their perfection without treading in his steps ?
" Your doctrine of perfection makes it needless for
perfect Christians to say the Lord's prayer, 'Forgive us
our trespasses.' "
We answer, 1. Though a perfect Christian does not
trespass voluntarily, and break the law of love, yet he
daily breaks the law of Adamic perfection, through the
imperfection of his bodily and mental powers : and he
has frequently a deeper sense of these involuntary tres-
passes than many weak believers have of their volun-
tary breaches of the moral law. 2. Although a perfect
Christian has a witness that his sins are now forgiven
in the court of his conscience, yet he knows the terrors
of the Lord : he hastens to meet the awful day of God :
he waits for the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ
in the character of a righteous Judge: he keeps an eye
to the awful tribunal before which he must soon be
justified or condemned by his words: he is conscious
that his final justification is not yet come : and there-
fore he would think himself a monster of stupidity and
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 283
pride, if, with an eye to his absolution in the great day,
he scrupled saying, to the end of his life, " Forgive us
our trespasses." 3. He is surrounded with sinners who
daily trespass against him, and whom he is daily
bound to forgive; and his praying that he may be for-
given now, and in the great day, as he forgave others,
reminds him that he may forfeit his pardon, and binds
him more to the performance of the important duty of
forgiving his enemies. And, 4. His charity is so ardent
that it melts him, as it were, into the common mass of
mankind. Bowing himself, therefore, under the enor-
mous load of all the wilful trespasses which his fellow-
mortals, and particularly his relatives and his brethren,
daily commit against God, he says, with a fervour that
imperfect Christians seldom feel, " Forgive us our tres-
passes" &c. We are heartily sorry for our misdo-
ings : [my own and those of my fellow sinners :] the
remembrance of them is grievous unto us : the burden
of them is intolerable. Nor do we doubt but when
the spirit of mourning leads a numerous assembly into
the vale of humiliation, the person who puts the shoul-
der of faith most readily to the common burden of sin,
and heaves the most powerfully in order to roll the
enormous load into the Redeemer's grave, is the most
perfect penitent the most exact observer of the apos-
tolic precept. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so
fulfil the law of Christ; and, of consequence, we do not
scruple to say, that such a person is the most perfect
Christian in the whole assembly.
"Your account of Christian perfection represents
adult believers as free from sin : now sin is that which
humbles us, and drives us to Christ, and therefore if we
284 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
were free from indwelling sin, we should lose a most
powerful incentive to humility."
We answer : Sin never humbled any soul. Who
has more sin than Satan ? And who is prouder ? Did
sin make our first parents humble? If it did not, how
do our brethren suppose that its nature is altered for the
better ? Who was humbler than Christ ? But was he
indebted to sin for his humility? Do we not see daily,
that the more sinful men are, the prouder they are also ?
If sin be necessary to make us humble, and to keep us
near Christ,, does it not follow that glorified saints, whom
all acknowledge to be sinless, are all proud despisers of
Christ ? See we not sin enough, when we look ten or
twenty years back, to humble us to the dust for ever, if
sin can do it 1 Need we plead for any more of it in
our hearts and lives? If the sins of our youth do not
humble us, are the sins of our old age likely to do it?
Lastly, what is indwelling sin but indwelling pride?
At least, is not inbred pride one of the chief ingredients
of indwelling sin ? And how can pride be productive
of humility ? Can a serpent beget a dove ? And will
not men gather grapes from thorns sooner than hu-
mility of heart from naughtiness of spirit?
SECTION IV.
THE ABSURDITY OF SAYING THAT ALL OUR CHRISTIAN
PERFECTION IS IN THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
IF by being perfect only in Christ be meant that
we can attain to Christian perfection no other way than
by being perfectly grafted in him : the true vine, and by
deriving, like vigorous branches, the perfect sap of his
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 285
perfect righteousness to enable us to bring forth fruit
unto perfection, we are entirely agreed : for we perpetu-
ally assert, that nothing but Christ dwelling in our
hearts by faith, or, which is all one, nothing but the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus can make us
free from the law of sin^ and perfect us in love. But
as we never advanced that Christian perfection is at-
tainable any other way than by a faith that roots and
grounds us in Christ ; we doubt some mystery of ini-
quity lies hid under the equivocal phrases, " All our per-
fection is in Christ's person We are perfect in him,
and not in ourselves."
Should those who use them insinuate by such lan-
guage that we cannot be perfect by an inherent per-
sonal conformity to God's holiness, because Christ is
thus perfect for us ; or should they mean that we are
perfect in him just as country freeholders, entirely
strangers to state affairs, are perfect politicians in the
knights of the shire who represent them in parliament ;
as the sick in a hospital are perfectly healthy in the
physician that gives them his attendance ; as the blind
man enjoyed perfect sight in Christ when he saw
walking men like moving trees ; as the filthy leper was
perfectly clean in our Lord before he had felt the power
of his gracious words, / will, be thou clean; or as
hungry Lazarus was perfectly fed in the person of the
rich man at whose gate he lay starving should this,
I say, be their meaning, we are conscience-bound to
oppose it, for the reasons contained in the following
queries :
1. If believers are perfect because Christ is perfect for
them, why does the apostle exhort them to go on to
perfection ?
286 BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER.
2. If all our perfection be inherent in Christ, is it not
strange that St. Paul should exhort us to perfect holi-
ness in the fear of the Lord, by cleansing ourselves
of all filthiness of flesh and spirit 1 Did not Christ
perfect his own holiness ? And will his personal sanc-
tity be imperfect till we have cleaned ourselves from all
defilement ?
3. If Christ be perfect for us, why does St. James
say, Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may
be perfect? Is Christ's perfection suspended on the
perfect work of our patience 1
4. Upon the scheme which I oppose, what does St.
Peter mean when he says, After ye have suffered
a while, the Lord make you perfect ? What has our
suffering a while to do with Christ's perfection ? Was
not Christ made perfect through his own suffering 1
5. If believers were perfect in Christ's person, they
would all be equally perfect. But is this the case?
Does not St. John talk of some who were perfected,
and others who are not yet made perfect in love?
Besides, the apostle exhorts to be perfect, not in Anti-
nomian notions, but in all the will of God, and in
every good work; and common sense dictates that
there is some difference between our good works and
the person of Christ.
6. Does not our Lord himself show, that his per-
sonal righteousness will by no means be accepted in-
stead of our perfection, where he says, "Every branch in
me that beareth not fruit [or whose fruit never grows
to any perfection, see Luke viii, 14] my Father taketh
it away," far from imputing it to his perfect fruit-
fulness ?
7. In the nature of things, can Christ's perfection
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 287
supply the want of that perfection which he calls us to ?
Is there not a more essential difference between Christ's
perfection and that of a believer, than there is between
the perfection of a rose and that of the grass of the
field ? between the perfection of a soaring eagle and
that of a creeping insect ? If our Lord is the head of
the church, and we the members, is it not absurd to
suppose that his perfection becomes us in every respect ?
Were I allowed to carry on a Scriptural metaphor, I
would ask, Is not the perfection of the head very dif-
ferent from that of the hand? And do we not take
advantage of the credulity of the simple when we
make them believe that an impenitent adulterer and
murderer is perfect in Christ ; or, if you please, that a
crooked leg and cloven foot are perfectly handsome, if
they do but somehow belong to a beautiful face ?
8. Let us illustrate this a little more. Does not the
Redeemer's personal perfection consist in being God
and man in one person ; in his being eternally begot-
ten by the Father as the Son of God, and unbegotten
in time by a father, as the son of man ; in having given
his life a ransom for all ; in his having taken it up
again ; and his standing in the midst of the throne,
able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God
through him ? Consider this, candid believer, and say
if any man or angel can decently hope that such an
incommunicable perfection can ever fall to his share.
9. As the Redeemer's personal perfection cannot suit
the redeemed, no more can the personal perfection of
the redeemed fee found in the Redeemer. A believer's
perfection consists in such a degree of faith as works
by perfect love. And does not this high degree of faith
chiefly imply uninterrupted self-diffidence, self-denial,
288 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
self-despair ? a heartfelt, ceaseless recourse to the blood,
merits, and righteousness of Christ? and a grate-
ful love to him, because he first loved us, and fervent
charity to all mankind for his sake? Three things
these which, in the very nature of things, either cannot
be in the Saviour at all, or cannot possibly be in him in
the same manner in which they must be in believers.
10. Is not the doctrine of our being perfect in Christ's
person big with mischief? Does it not open a refuge
of lies to the loosest ranters in the land ? Are there
none who say, We are perfect in Christ's person ? In
him we have perfect chastity and honesty, perfect
temperance and meekness; and we should be guilty
of Pharisaic insolence if we patched his perfection
with filthy rags of our personal holiness? And has
not this doctrine a direct tendency to set godliness
aside, and to countenance gross Antinomianism ?
Lastly. When our Lord preached the doctrine of per-
fection, did he not do it in such a manner as to demon-
strate that our perfection must be personal? Did he
ever say, If thou wilt be perfect, only believe that I am
perfect for thee ? On the contrary, did he not declare,
If thou wilt be perfect, sell what thou hast, [part with
all that stands in thy way,] and follow me in the way
of perfection ? and again, Do good to them that hate
you, that ye may be the children of your Father who
is in heaven : Be ye perfect, even as your Father who
is in heaven is perfect ? Who can read these words
and not see that the perfection which Christ preached
is a perfection of holy dispositions, productive of holy
actions in all his followers ? and that, of consequence,
it is a personal perfection, as much inherent in us, and
yet as much derived from him, and dependant on him,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 289
as the perfection of our bodily health ? the chief differ-
ence consisting in this, that the perfection of our health
comes to us from God in Christ, as the God of nature;
whereas our Christian perfection conies to us from God
in Christ, as the God of grace.
CHAPTER XXII.
OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN PER-
FECTION, TAKEN FROM CERTAIN PASSAGES OF
HOLY SCRIPTURE, ANSWERED.
SECTION I.
EXPOSITION OF 1 KINGS VIII, 46 : " IF THEY SIN AGAINST
THEE, (FOR THERE IS NO MAN THAT SINNETH NOT.)
AND THOU BE ANGRY WITH THEM," &C.
No unprejudiced person who, in reading this pas-
sage, takes the parenthesis (" for there is no man that
sinneth not") in connection with the context, can, I
think, help seeing that the Rev. Mr. Toplady. who, if
I remember right, quotes this text against us, mistakes
Solomon as much as Mr. Hill does St. John. The
meaning is evidently, there is no man who is not
liable to sin, and that a man actually sins when he
actually departs from God. Now peccability, or a lia-
bleness to sin, is not indwelling sin for angels, Adam,
and Eve, were all liable to sin, in their sinless stale.
And that there are some men who do not actually sin,
is indubitable: 1. From the hypothetical phrase in the
context, if any man sin, which shows that their sinning
is not unavoidable. 2 From God's anger against
those that sin, which is immediately mentioned. Hence
13
$90 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
it appears that so certain as God is not angry with all
his people, some of them do not sin in the sense of the
wise man. And, 3. From Solomon's intimating that
these very men who have sinned, or have actually de-
parted from God, may bethink themselves, repent, and
turn to God with all their heart, and with all their
soul, that is, may attain the dispensation ; the two poles
not being more opposed to each other than sinning is
to repenting, and departing from God to returning to
him with all our heart and with all our soul. Take,
therefore, the whole passage together, and you have a
demonstration that where sin hath abounded, there
grace may much more abound. And what is it but a
demonstration that our doctrine is not chimerical ? For
if Jews, [Solomon himself being judge,] instead of sin-
ning and departing from God, can repent and turn to
him with all their heart, how much more Christians,
whose privileges are much greater!
If Mr. Hill will consult the original of this passage,
" There is no man, &c.," he will find that the word
translated sinneth is in the future tense, which is often
used for an indefinite tense in the potential mood, be-
cause the Hebrews have no such mood or tense ; there-
fore our translators would only have done justice to the
original, as well as to the context, if they had rendered
the whole clause, There is no man that may not sin.
instead of, There is no man that sinneth not.
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 291
SECTION II.
EXPOSITION OF ECCLES. VII, 20 I " THERE IS NOT A JUST
MAN UPON EARTH THAT DOES GOOD AND SINNETH NOT."
1. WE are not sure that these are to be regarded
as the words of Solomon ; for he may introduce here
the very same man who, four verses before, says, Be
not righteous overmuch, &c. ; and Mr. Toplady may
mistake the meaning in one text, as Dr. Trapp has
done in the other. But, 2. Supposing Solomon speaks,
may not he in general assert what St. Paul does, Rom.
iii, 23, All have sinned and come short of the glory
of God, the just not excepted ? Is not this the very
sense which Canne, Calvinist as he was, gives to the
wise man's words when he refers the reader to this
assertion of the apostle ? And did we ever speak against
this true doctrine ? 3. If you take the original word s-in
in the lowest sense which it bears ; if it mean here what
it does Judges xx, 16, namely, to miss a mark, we
shall not differ ; for we maintain that, according to the
standard of paradisiacal perfection, there is not a just
man upon earth that does good and misses not the
mark of that perfection, that is, that does not lessen the
good he does by some involuntary, and therefore (evan-
gelically speaking) sinless defect. 4. It is bold to pre-
tend to overthrow the glorious liberty of God's children,
which is asserted in a hundred plain passages of the
New Testament, by producing so vague a text as
Eccles. vii, 20.
292 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
SECTION EQ.
THE TRUE MEANING OF GAL. V, 17 : " THE FLESH LUSTETH
AGAINST THE SPIRIT, AND THE SPIRIT AGAINST THE
FLESH, SO THAT YE CANNOT DO THE THINGS THAT YE
WOULD."
1. ST. PAUL wrote these words to the carnal, fallen
Galatians. To them he said, So that ye cannot do
the things that ye would : and there was good reason
why they could not do what they had a weak desire
to do. They were bewitched by the flesh, and by car-
nal teachers, who led them from the power of the Spirit
to the weakness of the letter; yea, to the letter of
Judaism too. But did he not speak of himself to the
Philippians in a very different strain? Did he riot
declare, I can do all things through Christ who
strengthened me? And cannot every believer who
steadily walks in the Spirit say the same thing ? Who
does not see the flaw of this argument 1 The disobe-
dient, fallen, bewitched believers of Galatia, of whom
St. Paul stood in doubt, could not but fulfil the lusts of
the flesh, when they were led by the flesh : neither hot
nor cold, like the Laodiceans, they could neither be
perfect Christians nor perfect worldlings, because they
fully sided neither with the Spirit nor with the flesh ;
or, to use the apostle's words, they could not do the
things that they would, through the opposition which
the flesh made against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh ; neither of these principles being yet fully
victorious in their halting, distracted hearts: therefore
this must be also the miserable case of all obedient,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 293
faithful, established believers through all ages, all the
world over ! What has this Antinomian conclusion to
do with the Scriptural premises ? When I assert that
those who have put out their knees cannot run a race
swiftly, do I so much as intimate that no man can be
a swift racer ?
The sense which is affixed to this text by our oppo-
nents is entirely overturned by the context. Read the
preceding verse, and you will find a glorious though
conditional promise of the liberty which we plead for :
This I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the [sinful] lusts ofthejlesh; that is, far from
harbouring either outward or inward sin, ye shall, with
myself, and as many as are perfect, steadily keep your
body under, and be in every thing spiritually minded,
which is life and peace.
2. It appears that the genuine meaning of Gal. v, 17,
when considered in the light of the context, is fairly
expressed in the following lines : " The flesh and the
Spirit are two contrary principles. They that are in,
or walk after, thefiesh, cannot please God. And ye
are undoubtedly in the flesh, and walk after the flesh,
while ye bite and devour one another. This I say,
then, Walk in the Spirit ; be led by the Spirit ; and
ye shall not fulfil the lusts ofthejlesh, as ye now do.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and prevails
in all carnal people ; and the Spirit lusteth against
the flesh in all spiritual people ; and these two, far
from nestling together, as Antinomian teachers make
you believe, are contrary to each other. They are
irreconcilable enemies; so that, as obedient, spiritual
believers, while they are led by the Spirit, cannot do
what they would do if they were led by the flesh, ye
294 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
bewitched, carnal, disobedient Galatians, who are led
by the flesh, cannot do what ye would do if ye were
led by the Spirit, and what ye have still some desire to
do, so far as ye have not yet absolutely quenched the
Spirit. Would ye then return to your liberty ? Return
to your duty ; change your guide ; forsake the carnal
mind ; let Christ be formed in you ; be led by the
Spirit ; so shall ye fulfil the law of Christ, and it
shall no more condemn you. For if ye be led by
the /Spirit, ye are not under the curse of the law :
ye are equally free from the bondage of the Mosaic
law and from the condemnation of the law of Christ,"
Gal. v, 16, 17, 18.
3. If I am not greatly mistaken, the preceding re-
marks prove, 1. That when our opponents pretend to
demonstrate the necessary indwelling of sin in all be-
lievers from Gal. v, 17, they wretchedly tear that text
from the context, to make it speak a language which
St. Paul abhors. 2. That the text, fairly taken toge-
ther with the context, and the design of the whole
epistle, is a proof that obedient, spiritual believers can
do what the bewitched Galatians could not do.
SECTION IV.
ST. PAUL, WHILE AN APOSTLE, WAS NOT CARNAL AND SOLD
UNDER SIN. TRUE MEANING OF ROM. VII, 14.
1. ST. PAUL no more professes himself actually a
carnal man in Rom. vii, 14, than he professes himself
actually a liar in Rom. iii, 7, where he says. But if
the truth of God has more abounded through my lie,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 295
why am T yet judged as a sinner? He no more pro-
fesses himself a man actually sold under sin, than
St. James and his fellow-believers profess themselves a
generation of vipers, and actual cursors of men, when
the one wrote, and the others read, The tongue can
no man tame: it is full of deadly poison : therewith
curse we men.
2. When St. Paul reproves the partiality of some of
the Corinthians to this or that preacher, he introduces
Apollos and himself; though it seems that his reproof
was chiefly intended for other preachers, who fomented
a party spirit in the corrupted church at Corinth. And
then he says, These things, brethren, I have in a
figure transferred to myself and Apollos, for your
sakes ; that ye might learn in us not to think of
men above that which is written. By the same figure
he says of himself, what he might have said of any
other man, or of all mankind, Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass. Thrice in
three verses he speaks of his not having charity : and
suppose he had done it three hundred times, this would
no more have proved that he was really uncharitable,
than his saying, Rom. vii, 14, / am sold under sin,
proves that he served the law of sin with his body, as
a slave is forced to serve the master who bought him.
3. It frequently happens also, that by a figure of
rhetoric, which is called hypotyj)osis, writers relate
things past or things to come in the present tense, that
their narration may be more lively, and may make a
stronger impression. Thus, Gen. vi, 17, we read, Be-
hold, I, even I, DO bring [that is, I will bring, one
hundred and twenty years -hence] a flood upon the
296 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
earth. Thus also 2 Sam. xxii, 1, 35, 48, When the
Lord had delivered David out of the hands of his ene-
mies, and had given him peace in all his borders, he
spake the words of this song : He teacheth [i. e., he
taught] my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is
[i. e., was] broken by mine arms. It is God that
avengeth [i. e., that hath avenged] me, and that
bringeth [i. e., hath brought] me forth from mine
enemies. A thousand such expressions, or this figure
continued through a thousand verses, would never prove
that King Saul was alive, and that King David was not
yet delivered for good out of his bloody hands. Now,
if St. Paul, by a similar figure, which he carries through-
out part of a chapter, relates his past experience in the
present tense ; if the Christian apostle, to humble him-
self, and to make his description more lively, and the
opposition between the bondage of sin and Christian
liberty more striking ; if the apostle, I say, with such a
design as this, appears upon the stage of instruction in
his old Jewish dress, a dress this in which he could
serve God day and night, and yet, like another Ahab,
breathe threatenings and slaughter against God's chil-
dren ; and if in this dress he says, / am carnal, sold
under sin, &c. ; is it not ridiculous to measure his
growth as an apostle of Christ by the standard of his
stature when he was a Jewish bigot, a fiery zealot, full
of good meanings and bad performances ?
4. The states of all souls may, in general, be reduced
to three : 1. The state of unawakened sinners, who
quietly sleep in the chains of their sins, and dream of
self-righteousness and heaven ; 2. That of awakened,
uneasy, reluctant sinners, who try in vain to break the
galling chains of their sins ; and 3. That of delivered
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 297
sinners, or victorious believers, who enjoy the liberty of
God's children. This last state is described in Rom.
vii, 4, 6. The rest of that chapter is judiciously brought
in, to show how the unawakened sinner is roused out
of his carnal state, and how the awakened sinner is
driven to Christ for liberty by the lashing and binding
commandment. The apostle shows this by observing
[ver. 7, &c.] how the law makes a sinner [or, if you
please, made him] pass from the unawakened to the
awakened state. I had not known sin, says he, but
by the law, &c. When he had described his un-
awakened state without the law, and began to describe
his awakened state under the law, nothing was more
natural than to change the time or tense, But having
already used the past tense in the description of the
first, or the unawakened state ; and having said, With-
out the law sin was dead Twos alive without the
law once Sin revived and I died, &c., he could no
more use that tense when he began to describe the
second, or awakened state ; he was therefore obliged to
use another tense, and none in that case was fitter than
the present : just as if he had said, When I died to my
self-righteous hopes, &c., the language of my heart was,
/ am carnal, sold under sin, <fec. It is, therefore, with
the utmost rhetorical propriety that the apostle say a,
I am, and not I was, carnal, &c.
SECTION V.
PAUL'S THORN IN THE FLESH EXPLAINED.
"THERE was given me a thorn in the flesh, the mes-
senger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
13*
298 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
above measure, 2 Cor. xii, 7. Now what could this
thorn in the flesh be but a sinful lust ? And what the
messenger of Satan, but pride or immoderate anger ?"
1. You entirely mistake the apostle's meaning-. While
you try to make him a moderate imperfectionist, you
make him an impudent Antinomian ; for, speaking of
his thorn in the flesh, and of this messenger, he calls
them his infirmities. Now if his infirmities were pride,
a wrathful disposition, and a. filthy lust, did he not act
the part of a filthy Antinomian when he said that he
gloried in them ? Would not even Paul's carnal man have
blushed to speak thus? Far from glorying in his pride,
wrath, or indwelling lust, did he not groan, O wretched
man that I am ?
2. The apostle, still speaking of his thorn in the
flesh, and of Satan buffeting him by proxy, and still
calling these trials his infirmities, explains himself far-
ther in these words: Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in persecutions, <J-c., for
Christ's sake : for when I am weak then am I strong.
Those infirmities, that thorn in the flesh, that buf-
feting of Satan, cannot be indwelling sin, or any out-
breaking of it, for the devil himself could do no more than
to take pleasure in his wickedness; and in Rom. vii,
the carnal penitent himself delights in the law of God
after the inward man, instead of taking pleasure in his
indwelling sin.
3. The infirmities in which St. Paul glories and
takes pleasure were such as had been given him to
keep him humble after his revelations. There was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, &c., 2 Cor. xii, 7.
Those infirmities and that thorn were not then in-
dwelling sin, for indwelling sin was not given him after
BEAUTIES OP FLETCHER. 299
his visions, seeing [according to Calvinism] it stuck fast
in him long before he went to Damascus. It is absurd,
therefore, to suppose that God gave him the thorn of
indwelling sin afterward, or indeed that he gave it to
him at all.
4. If Mr. Hill wants to know what we understand
by St. Paul's thorn in the flesh, and by the messenger
of Satan that buffeted him, we reply, that we under-
stand his bodily infirmities, the great weakness, and
the violent headache with which Tertullian and St.
Chrysostom inform us the apostle was afflicted. The
same God who said to Satan concerning Job, Behold
he is in thine hand, to touch his bone and his flesh,
but save his life ; the same God who permitted that
adversary to bind the daughter of Abraham with a
spirit of bodily infirmity for eighteen years ; the same
gracious God, I say, permitted Satan to afflict St. Paul's
body with uncommon pains ; and at times, it seems,
with preternatural weakness, which made his appear-
ance and delivery contemptible in the eyes of his ad-
versaries. That this is not a conjecture, grounded upon
uncertain tradition, is evident from the apostle's own
words two pages before. His letters, say they, [that
buffeted me in the name of Satan,] are weighty and
powerful ; but his bodily presence is weak, and his
speech contemptible, 2 Cor. x, 10. And soon after, de-
scribing these emissaries of the devil, he says, Such
are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ : [to oppose me
and prejudice you against my ministry :] and no mar-
vel ; for Satan himself [who sets them on] is trans-
formed into an angel of light, 2 Cor. xi, 13. But if
the thorn in the flesh be all one with the buffeting
300 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
messenger of Satan, St. Paul's meaning is evidently
this: " God, who suffered the Canaaniies to be scourges
in the sides of the Israelites, and thorns in their
eyes, (Josh, xxiii, 13,) has suffered Satan to bruise
my heel, while I bruise his head ; and that ad-
versary afflicts me thus, by his thorns and pricking
briers, that is, by false apostles, who buffet me through
malicious misrepresentations, which render me vile in
your sight." This sense is strongly countenanced by
these words of Ezekiel : They shall know that I am the
Lord, and there shall be no more a pricking brier to
the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that
are round about them, that despised them.
SECTION VI.
EXPOSITION OF 1 JOHN 1,8: " IF WE SAY WE HAVE NO SIN,
WE DECEIVE OURSELVES, AND THE TRUTH IS NOT IN US."
1. IN this passage St. John designs to strike a blow
at Pharisaic professors. There were in his time, as
there are in our own, numbers of men who had never
been properly convinced of sin, and who boasted, as St.
Paul once did, that touching the righteousness of the
law, they were blameless ; they served God ; they did
their duty ; they gave alms ; they never did anybody
any harm : they thanked God they were not as other
men; but especially that they were not like those
mourners in Sion, who were, no doubt, very wicked,
since they made so much ado about God's mercy, and
a powerful application of the Redeemer's cleansing
blood. How proper then was it for St. John to inform
his readers that these whole-hearted Christians, these
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 301
perfect Pharisees, were no better than liars and self
deceivers; and that true Christian righteousness is
always attended by a genuine conviction of our native
depravity, and an humble acknowledgment of our actual
transgressions.
These things being premised, it appears that the text
so dear to us, as mistaken by our opponents, has this
fair and Scriptural meaning : " If we [followers of Him
who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to re-
pentance] say we have no sin, [no native depravity from
our first parents, and no actual sin, at least no such
sin as deserves God's wrath ; fancying we need not
secure a particular application of Christ's atoning and
purifying blood,] we deceive ourselves, and the truth
[of repentance and faith] is not in us.
That these words are levelled at the monstrous error
of self-conceited and self-perfected Pharisees, and not at
the glorious liberty of the children of God, appears
to us indubitable from the following reasons: 1. The
immediately preceding verse strongly asserts this liberty.
2. The verse immediately following secures it also, and
cuts down the doctrine of our opponents ; the apostle's
meaning being evidently this : " Though I write to you
that if we say we are originally free from sin, and
never did any harm, we deceive ourselves ; yet mis-
take me not; I do not mean that we need con-
tinue under the guilt, or in the moral infection of
any sin, original or actual: for if we penitently and
believingly confess both, he is faithful and just to for-
give us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright-
eousness, whether it be native or self-contracted, inter-
nal or external. Therefore if we have attained the
glorious liberty of God's children, we need not, through
302 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
voluntary humility, say that we do nothing but sin. It
will be sufficient, when we are cleansed from all
unrighteousness, still to be deeply humbled for our
present infirmities and for our past sins, confessing
both with godly sorrow and filial shame. For if we
should say, We have not sinned, [note, St. John does
not write, If we should say, We do not sin,] we make
him a liar, and the truth is not in us; common
sense dictating, that if we have not sinned we speak
an untruth when we profess that Christ has forgiven
our sins. This appears to us the true meaning of
John i, 8, when it is fairly considered in the light of the
context.
If these remarks be just, does it not appear that it is
as absurd to stab Christian perfection through the sides
of Job, Isaiah, and Solomon, as to set Peter, Paul,
James, and John upon "cutting- it up, root and
branch ?"
CHAPTER XXIII.
CONTAINING A VARIETY OF ARGUMENTS TO PROVE
THE MISCHIEVOUSNESS OF THE DOCTRINE OF
CHRISTIAN IMPERFECTION.
THE following arguments are intended to prove the
MISCHIEVOUSNESS of Mr. Hill's doctrine of Christian
imperfection.
I. It strikes at the doctrine of salvation by faith.
" By grace are ye saved through faith," not only from
the guilt and outward acts of sin, but also from its root
and secret buds. " Not of* works," says the apostle,
* Here, and in some other places, St. Paul by " works" means
only the deeds of a Christless, antimediatorial law, and the obedi-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 303
"lest any man should [Pharisaically] boast;" and may
we not add, Not of DEATH, lest he that had the power
of death, that is, the devil, should [absurdly] boast 1
Does not what strikes at the .doctrine of faith, and
abridges the salvation which we obtain by it, equally
strike at Christ's power and glory 1 Is it not the busi-
ness of faith to receive Christ's saving word, to appre-
hend the power of his sanctifying Spirit, and to inherit
all the great promises by which he saves his penitent,
believing people from their sins ? Is it not evident that
if no believers can be saved from indwelling sin through
faith, we must correct the apostle's doctrine, and say,
"By grace are ye saved from the remains of sin,
through death?" And can unprejudiced Protestants
admit so Christ-debasing, death-exalting a tenet, with-
out giving a dangerous blow to the genuine doctrines
of the Reformation ?
II. It dishonours Christ as a Prophet: for, as such,
he came to teach us to be now " meek and lowly in
heart:" but the imperfect gospel of the day teaches
that we must necessarily continue passionate and proud
in heart till death ; for pride and immoderate anger are,
I apprehend, two main branches of indwelling sin.
Again : my motto demonstrates that he publicly
ence paid to the Jewish covenant, which is frequently called " the
law," in opposition to the Christian covenant, which is commonly
called " the gospel," that is, the gospel of Christ, because Christ's
gospel is the most excellent of all the gospel dispensations. The
apostle, therefore, by the expression, "not of works," does by no
means exclude from "final" salvation, the law of faith, and the
works done in obedience to that law : for, in the preceding verse, he
secures the obedience of faith when he says, " Ye are saved [that
is, made partakers of the blessing of the Christian dispensation] by
grace through faith." Here then the word " by grace" secures the
first gospel axiom, and the word" " through faith" secures the second.
304 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
taught the multitudes the doctrine of perfection, and
Mr. Hill insinuates that this doctrine is " shocking," not
to say " blasphemous."
III. It disgraces Christ as the Captain of our salva-
tion : for St. Paul says, that our Captain furnishes us
with "weapons mighty through God to the pulling
down of Satan's strong holds, and to the bringing of
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."
But our opponents represent the devil's strong hold as
absolutely impregnable. No weapons of our warfare
can pull down Apollyon's throne. Inbred sin shall
maintain its place in man's heart till death strike the
victorious blow. Christ may indeed fight against the
Jericho within, as " Joab fought against Kabbah of the
children of Ammon :" but then he must send for death,
as Joab sent for David, saying, " I have fought against
Kabbah, and have taken the city of waters : now,
therefore, gather the rest of the pedple together, encamp
against the city, and take it, lest I take the city, and it
be called after my name," 2 Sam. xii, 27, 28.
IV. It pours contempt upon him as the Surety of the
new covenant, in which God has engaged himself to
deliver obedient believers "from their enemies, that they
may serve him without [tormenting] fear, all the days
of their lives." For how does he execute his office in this
respect, if he never sees that such believers be delivered
from their most oppressive and inveterate enemy, indwell-
ing sin? Or if that deliverance take place only at death,
how can they, in consequence of their death freedom,
"serve God without fear all the days of their lives?
V. It affronts Christ as a King, when it represents
the believer's heart, which is Christ's spiritual throne, as
being necessarily full of indwelling sin a spiritual rebel,
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 305
who, notwithstanding the joint efforts of Christ and the
believer, maintains his power against them both during
the term of life. Again : does not a good king deliver
his loyal subjects from oppression, and avenge them of
a tyrannical adversary, when they cry to him in their
distress 1 But does our Lord show himself such a king,
if he never avenge them, nor turn the usurper, the mur-
derer, sin, out of their breasts ? Once more : if our de-
liverance from sin depend upon the stroke of death, and
not upon a stroke of Christ's grace, might we not call
upon the king of terrors, as well as upon the King of
saints, for deliverance from the remains of sin? But
where is the difference between saying, " O death, help
us !" and crying, " O Baal, save us?"
YI. It injures Christ as a Restorer of pure, spiritual
worship in God's spiritual temple, the heart of "man.
For it indirectly represents him as a Pharisaic Saviour,
who made much ado about driving, with a whip, harm-
less sheep and oxen out of his Father's material temple;
but who gives full leave to Satan, not only to bring
sheep and doves into the believer's heart, but also to
harbour and breed there during the term of life the
swelling toad, pride; and the hissing viper, envy; to
say nothing of the greedy dog, avarice, and the filthy
swine, impurity; under pretence of "exercising the
patience, and engaging the industry" of the worshippers,
if we may believe the Calvin of the day. (See the
argument against Christian perfection at the end of
this section.)
VII. It insults Christ as a Priest ; for our Melchise-
dec shed his all-cleansing blood upon the cross, and
now pours his all-availing prayer before the throne;
asking that, upon evangelical terms, we may now be
306 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
"cleansed from all unrighteousness, and perfected in
one." But if we assert that believers, let them be ever
so faithful, can never be thus cleansed and perfected in
one till death comes to the Saviour's assistance, do we
not place our Lord's cleansing blood, and powerful in-
tercession, and of consequence his priesthood, in an
unscriptural and contemptible light ? .
Should Mr. Hill attempt to retort this argument by
saying, " that it is our doctrine, not his, which dero-
gates from the honour of Christ's priesthood, because
we should no longer need our High Priest's blood if we
were cleansed from all sin ;" I reply :
(1.) Perfect Christians need as much the virtue of
Christ's blood, to prevent the guilt and pollution of sin
from returning, as imperfect Christians want it to drive
that guilt and pollution away. It is not enough that
the blood of the true paschal Lamb has been sprinkled
upon our souls to keep off the destroyer ; it must still
remain there to hinder his coming back " with seven
other spirits more wicked than himself." (2.) Mr. Hill
is in the dark; he calls for a light; and when it is
brought, he observes, The darkness of the room is now
totally removed. " Is it so, sir ?" replies his footman ;
" then you need these candles no more ; if they have
totally removed the darkness of your apartment, you
have no more need of them." Mr. Hill smiles at the
absurdity of his servant's argument ; and yet it is well
if he does not admire the wisdom of my opponent's
objection. (3.) The hearts of perfect Christians are
cleansed, and kept clean, by faith ; and Christian per-
fection means the perfection of Christian faith, whose
property it is to endear Christ and his blood more and
more ; nothing then can be less reasonable than tc say
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 307
that, upon our principles, perfect believers have done
with the atoning blood. (4.) Such believers continually
overcome the accuser of the brethren through the
blood of the Lamb ; there is no moment, therefore, in
which they can spare it : they are feeble believers who
can yet dispense with its constant application; and
hence it is that they continue feeble. None make so
much use of Christ's blood as perfect Christians. Once
it was only their medicine, which they took now and
then, when a fit of fear, or a pang of guilt, obliged them
to it ; but now it is the divine preservative, which keeps
off the infection of sin. Now it is the reviving cordial,
which they take to prevent their " growing weary, or
faint in their minds." Now it is their daily drink ; now
it is what they sprinkle their every thought, word, and
work with. In a word, it is that blood which constantly
speaks before God and in their consciences " better things
than the blood of Abel," and actually procures for them
all the blessings which they enjoy or expect. To say,
therefore, that the doctrine of Christian perfection super-
sedes the need of Christ's blood, is not less absurd than
to assert that the perfection of navigation renders the
great deep a useless reservoir of water. Lastly : Are
not the saints before the throne perfectly sinless ? And
who are more ready than they to extol the blood and
sing the song of the Lamb : " To him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his blood, be glory,"
&c. ? If an angel preached to them the modern gospel,
and desired them to plead for the remains of sin, lest
they should lose their peculiar value for the atoning
blood ; would not they all suspect him to be an angel
of darkness, transforming himself into an angel of
light? And shall we be the dupes of the tempter, who
308 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
deceives good men, that they may deceive us by a simi-
lar argument 1
VIII. It discredits Christ as the Fulfiller of the Fa-
ther's promise, and as the Sender of the indwelling,
abiding Comforter, in order that our joy may be full.
For the Spirit never takes his constant abode as a
Comforter in a heart full of indwelling sin. If he visit
such a heart with his consolations, it is only " as a
guest that tarrieth but a day." When he enters a soul
fraught with inbred corruption, he rather acts as a Re-
prover than as a Comforter ; throwing down the tables
of the spiritual money changers ; hindering the vessels,
which are not holiness unto the Lord, from being carried
through God's spiritual temple, and expelling, according
to the degree of our faith, whatsoever would make God's
house " a den of thieves."
But, instead of this, Mr. Hill's doctrine considers the
heart of a believer as a " den of lions ;" and represents
Christ's Spirit, not as the destroyer, but as the keeper of
the wild beasts, and evil tempers which dwell therein.
This I conclude from these words of the Rev. Mr. Top-
lady: "They," indwelling sin and unholy tempers,
" do not quite expire till the renewed soul is taken up
from earth to heaven. In the mean time these heated
remains erf depravity will, too often, like prisoners in a
dungeon, crawl toward the window, though in chains,
and show themselves through the grate. Nay, I do not
know whether the strivings of inherent corruption for
mastery be not, frequently, more violent in a regenerate
person than even in one who is dead in trespasses ; as
wild beasts are sometimes the more rampant and furious
for being wounded." (See Caveat against Unsound
Doctrines, p. 65.) When I read this gospel, I cannot
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 309
but throw in a Caveat against Mr. Toplady's Caveat.
For if his be not unsound, every body must allow it to
be uncomfortable and unsafe. Who would not think it
dreadfully dangerous to dwell with one wild beast that
cannot be killed, unless we are first killed ourselves?
But how much more dangerous is it to be condemned
to dwell for life with a number of them which are not
only immortal, so long as we are alive, but " are some-
times the more rampant and furious for being wounded !"
The Saviour preached by Mr. Toplady only wounds
the Egyptian dragon, the inward Pharaoh, and makes
him rage ; but our Jesus drowns him in the sea of his
own blood, barely by stretching out the rod of his power,
when we stretch out to him our arms of faith. Mr.
Hill's Redeemer only takes Agag prisoner, as double-
minded Saul did; but our Redeemer "hews him in
pieces," as upright Samuel. The Christ of the Calvin-
ists says, " Confine the enemy ; though he may possibly
be fiercer than before ;" but ours " thrusts out the enemy
before us, and says, Destroy," Deut. xxxiii, 27. O, ye
preachers of finished salvation, we leave it to your
candour to decide which of these doctrines brings most
glory to the saving name of Jesus.
IX. The doctrine of our necessary continuance in
indwelling sin to our last moments makes us naturally
overlook or despise the " exceeding great and precious
promises given unto us, that by these we might be par-
takers of the divine nature," that is, of God's perfect
holiness ; " having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust," 2 Pet. i, 4 ; and thus it naturally
defeats the full effect of evangelical truths and minis-
terial labours ; an effect this, which is thus described by
St. Paul : " teaching every man in all wisdom, that we
or
may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,* that is,
perfect according to the richest dispensation of divine
grace, which is, K the gospel of Christ Jesus/' Col.
Again : " The Scripture fe profitable for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished to all good works," 2 Tim. iii, 16.
Now we apprehend that the perfection which thoroughly
furnishes believers unto all good works, is a perfection
productive of all the good works" evangelically as well
as providentially "prepared that we should walk in
them" before death: because, (whatever Mr. Hill may
insinuate to the contrary in England, and father Walsh
at Paris,) the Scriptures say, " Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do ft with thy might; for there is no
work nor device" in death, that is, " in the grave whither
thou goest." For as the tree falls, so ft lies: if it falls
full of rottenness with a brood of vipers, and a never-
dying worm in its hollow centre, it will continue in that
very condition ; and wo to the man who trusts that the
pangs of death will kill the worm, or that a purgative
fire will spare the rotten wood and consume the vipers !
X. It defeats in part the end of the gospel precepts,
to the fill filling of which gospel promises are but means.
"All the law, the prophets," and the apostolic writings,
"hang on these two commandments: Thou shall
lave the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy
neighbour as thyself," through penitential faith in the
light of thy dispensation ; that is, in two words, thou
shalt be evangelically perfect. Now, if we believe
that it is absolutely impossible to be thus perfect by
keeping these two blessed commandments in faith, we
cannot but believe also that God, who requires us to
keep them, is defective in wisdom, equity, and good-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER, 31 J
ness, by requiring us to do what is absolutely impos-
sible ; and we represent our Church as a wicked step-
mother who betrays her children into the wanton com-
mission of perjury, by requiring of every one of them,
in the sacrament of baptism, a most solemn vow, by
which they bind themselves, in the presence of , God
and of the congregation, that ." they will keep God's
holy will and commandments/' that is. that they will
keep God's evangelical law. "and walk in tb.e same
all the days of their life."
XL It has a necessary tendency to unnerve our
deepest prayers. How can we pray hi faith that God
would help us to " do his will on earth as it is done in
heaven/' or that he would cleanse the thoughts of our
hearts, that we may perfectly love him and worthily
magnify his holy name :" how can we. I say, ask this
in faith, if we disbelieve the very possibility of having
these petitions answered ? And what poor encourage-
ment has Epaphras. upon the scheme which we oppose,
" always to labour fervently for the Colossians in prayer,
that they might stand perfect and complete in the will
of God ;" or St. Paul to wish that " the very God of
peace would sanctify the Thessalonians wholly, and
that their whole spirit, and soul, and body, might be
preserved blameless," if these requests could not be
granted before death, and were unavoidably to be grant-
ed to them and to all believers in the article thereof?
XII. It soothes lukewarm, unholy professors, and
encourages them to sit quietly under the vine of Sodom,
and under their own barren fig-tree : I mean under the
baneful influence of their unbelief and indwelling sin ;
nothing being more pleasing to the carnal mind than
this syren song : " It is absolutely impossible that the
312 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
thoughts of your hearts should be cleansed in this life.
God himself does not expect that you should be purified
from all iniquity on this side the grave. It is proper
that sin should dwell in your hearts by unbelief, to
endear Christ to you, and so to work together for your
good" The preachers of mere morality insinuate that
God does not forgive sins before death. This danger-
ous, uncomfortable doctrine, damps the faith of penitents,
who think it absurd to expect before death what they
are taught they can only receive at death. And as it
is with the pardon of sins, so it is also with " cleansing
from all unrighteousness." The preachers of Christian
imperfection tell their hearers that nobody can be
cleansed from heart sin before death. This new doc-
trine makes them secretly trust in a death purgatory,
and hinders them from pleading in faith the promises
of full sanctification before death stares them in the
face ; while others, like spared Agag, madly venture
upon the spear of the king of terrors with their hearts
full of indwelling sin. The dead tell no tales now ;
but it will be well if, in the day of resurrection, those
who plead for the necessary indwelling of sin during
the term of life do not meet in the great day with some
deluded souls, who will give them no thanks for betray-
ing them, to their last moments, into the hands of in-
dwelling sin, by insinuating that there can be no deli-
verance from our evil tempers before we are ready to
exchange a death-bed for a coffin.
XIII. It greatly discourages willing Israelites, and
weakens the hands of the faithful spies who want to
lead feeble believers on, and to take by force the king-
dom which consists in righteousness, peace, and joy in
the Holy Ghost ; nothing being more proper to damp
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 313
their ardour than such a speech as this : You may
strive against your corruptions and evil tempers as long
as you please : but you shall never get rid of them ;
the Jericho within is impregnable : it is fenced up to
heaven, and garrisoned by the tall, invincible, immortal
sons of Anak : so strong are these adversaries, that the
twelve apostles, with the help of Christ and the Holy
Ghost, could never turn one of them out of his post.
Nay, they so buffeted and overpowered St. Paul, the
most zealous of the apostles, that they fairly took him
prisoner, sold him under sin,' and made him groan to
the last, < O wretched, carnal man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the law of my inbred corruptions,
which brings me into captivity to the law of sin ? I
thank God through death. So then with the flesh,'
you must, as well as St. Paul, ' serve the law of sin' till
you die. Nor need you fret at these tidings ; for they
are the pure gospel of Christ, the genuine doctrines of
free grace and Christian liberty. In Christ you are free,
but in yourselves you must continue to serve the law
of sin : and indeed why should you not do it, since the
sins of a Christian are for his good; and even the
dung of a sheep of Christ is of some use, nay, of the
most excellent use, if we believe Mr. Hill; for the most
grievous fallsfalls into repeated acts of adultery and
deliberate murder serve to make us know our place,
to drive us nearer to Christ, and to make us sing louder
the praises of restoring grace." Besides, that gentleman
represents those who preach deliverance from indwelling
sm before we go into a death purgatory as " men of a
Pharisaic cast ; blind men, who never saw their own
hearts; proud men, who oppose the righteousness of
God j vain men, who aspire at robbing Christ of the
14
314 BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER.
glory of being alone without sin : in short, men who
hold doctrines which are shocking, not to say blas-
phemous."
How would this speech damp our desires after salva-
tion from indwelling sin ! How would it make us hug
the cursed chains of our inbred corruptions, if the cloven
foot of the imperfect, unchaste Diana, which it holds out
to public view without gospel sandals, were not sufficient
to shock us back from this impure gospel to the pure
gospel of Jesus Christ ! And yet (if I am not mistaken)
this dangerous speech only unfolds the scope of Mr.
Hill's " Creed for Perfectionists."
XIY. To conclude. The modish doctrine of Chris-
tian imperfection and death purgatory is so contrived,
that carnal men will always prefer the purgatory of the
Calvinists to that of the Papists. For the Papists pre-
scribe I know not how many cups of divine wrath and
dire vengeance, which are to be drunk by the souls
of the believers who die half purged, or three-parts
cleansed. These Aa//-damned, or a quarter-damned
creatures, must go through a severe discipline, and fiery
salvation, in the very suburbs of hell, before they can be
perfectly purified. But our opponents have found out a
way to deliver half-hearted believers out of all fear in
this respect. Such believers need not " utterly abolish
the body of sin" in this world. The inbred man of sin
not only may, but he shall, live as long as we do. You
will possibly ask, " What is to become of this sinful
guest? Shall he take us to hell, or shall we take him
to heaven? If he cannot die in this world, will Christ
destroy him in the next?" No: here Christ is almost
left out of the question, by those who pretend to be de-
termined to " know nothing but Christ and him cruci-
BEAUTIES OF FLETCHER. 315
fied." Our indwelliog adversary is not destroyed by
the brightness of the Redeemer's spiritual appearing,
but by the gloom of the appearance of death. Thus
they have found another Jesus ; another Saviour from
sin. The king of terrors comes to the assistance of
Jesus' sanctifying grace, and instantaneously delivers
the carnal believer from indwelling pride, unbelief, co-
vetousness, peevishness, uncharitableness, love of the
world, and inordinate affection. Thus the clammy
sweats, brought on by the greedy monster, kill, it seems,
the tree of sin. of wnich the blood of Christ could only
kill the buds ! The dying sinner's breath does the capi-
tal work of the Spirit of holiness ! And by the most
astonishing of all miracles, the faint, infectious, last gasp
of a sinful believer blows away, in the twinkling of an
eye, the great mountain of inward corruption, which all
the means of grace, all the faith, prayers, and sacra-
ments of twenty, perhaps of forty years, with all the
love in the heart of our Zerubbabel, all the blood in his
veins, all the power in his hands, and all the faithful-
ness in his breast, were never able to remove ! If this
doctrine be true, how greatly was St. Paul mistaken
when he said. " The sting of death is sin, &c. Thanks
be to God, who giveth us the victory through Christ our
Lord P Should he not have said, Death is the care of
sin, instead of saying, " Sin is the sting of death ?"
And should not his praises flow thus : " Thanks be to
God, who giveth us the victory through DEATH, our
great and only deliverer from our greatest and fiercest
enemy, indwelling sin ?"
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