·

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

XII. P. 64." Christ being styled not only the author, but the finisher of our faith; he must be, consequently, the finisher of our salvation." So he undoubtedly is, when we are workers together with him,' that is, when using the gracious talent of will and power, which he freely gives us, we work out our own sal vation with fear and trembling.' But if we bury that taient, do despite to the Spirit of grace, forget that we were washed from our sins,' and wallow again iu the mire of iniquity; Christ,' the author of the faith which we destroy, profiteth us uothing; we are fallen from grace.'

Is it right to rock feeble believers in the cradle of carnal security, by telling them, they can never lose the faith; when part of St. Paul's triumphant song, just before he received the crown of martyrdom, was, 'I have kept the faith?' What wonder was it, that he should have kept, what even the carnal, incestuous Corinthian could never lose! When the scriptures mention, not only those who have kept the faith,' but those who have made shipwreck of it and of a

་

good conscience,-those who believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away,'-and those who one day believe, another day have little faith, and by and by have no faith ;—are we not 'wise above what is written,' and sow we not Antinomian tares, when we give lukewarm Laodiceans to understand, they can never lose what, alas! they have already lost?

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

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

Once more permit me, honoured Sir, to hang the millstone of reprobation about the neck of your Diana, to cast her back with that cumbrous weight into the sea of error, from whose scum she, like another Venus, had her unnatural origin. If the salvation of the elect is finished, because Christ is the author and finisher of their faith,' it necessarily follows, that the damna

tion of the reprobates is also finished, because "Christ is the author and finisher of their unbelief." For he that absolutely withholds faith, causes unbelief, as effectually as he that absolutely withholds the light, causes darkness.

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

An illustration will, I hope, expose the emptiness of the pleas which some urge in favour of unconditional reprobation, or, if you please, non-election. A mother conceives an unaccountable antipathy to her sucking child. She goes to the brink of a precipice, bends herself over it with the passive infant in her bosom, and, withdrawing her arms from under him, drops him upon the craggy side of a rock, and thus he rolls down from rock to rock, till he lies at the bottom beaten to pieces, a bloody instance of finished destruction. The judge asks the murderer, what she has to say in her own defence. The child was mine, replies she, and I have a right to do what I please with my own. Besides, I did neither throw him down, nor murder him: I only withdrew my arms from under him, and he fell of his own accord. In mystic Geneva, she is honourably acquitted; but in England, the executioner is ordered to rid the earth of the cruel monster. So may God give us commission to rid the church of your Diana, who teaches, that he, the Father of mercies, does by millions of his passive children, what the barbarous mother did by one of hers: Affirming, that he unconditionally withholds grace from them: And that, by absolutely refusing to be the author and finisher of

their faith,' he is the absolute author and finisher of their unbelief, and consequently of their sin and damnation.

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

XIV. I do not think it worth while to dwell upon the lines you quote from Mr. Charles Wesley's Hymns. He is yet alive to tell us what he meant by "it's finished; it's past," &c. And he informs me, that he meant, "the sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, which Christ made upon the cross for the sins of the whole world, except ' doing despite to the Spirit of grace,' or the sin against the Holy Ghost." The atonement, which is a considerable part of the Redeemer's work, is undoubtedly finished; and if by a figure of poetry, that puts a part for the whole, you choose to give the name of finished salvation to a finished atonement, I have already observed in the

Check, that we will not dispute about the We only entreat you so to explain and ot to give sanction to "Antinomian doarge the God of love with the blasphemy mnation.

alvinistical passage which you produce

from the Christian Library, is unguarded, and escaped Mr. Wesley's or the printer's attention. One sentence of it is worthy of a place in the Index Expurgatorius, which he designs to annex to that valuable collection. Nevertheless, two clauses of that very passage are not at all to your purpose. "Christ is now thoroughly furnished for the carrying on of this work :—He is actually at work." Now if Christ is actually at work, and carrying on his work, that work is not yet finished. Thus, even the exceptionable passage which you, or the friends who gave you their assistance, have picked out of a work of fifty volumes, shews the absurdity of taking the expression, "finished salvation," in its full

extent.

free

grace,

wrath.

Should you say, "Christ is thoroughly furnished for his work, (namely, the salvation of the elect,) therefore that work is as good as finished," I once more present you with the frightful head of Geneva-Medusa, and reply, "Christ is thoroughly furnished for his work, (namely, the damnation of the reprobates,) therefore that work is as good as finished.” Thus all terminates still in uncovering the two iron-clay feet of your great image, absolute election and absolute reprobation, or, which is all one, finished salvation, and finished damnation. O Sir, the more you fight for Dr. Crisp's scheme of the more you expose his scheme of free hope my judicious readers are shocked at it, as well as myself. Your "sword" really "puts us to flight."-We start back,-we run away: But it is only from the depths of Satan, which you help us to discover in speculative Antinomianism, or barefaced Calvinism. XVI. If you charge me with "calumny" for asserting, that speculative Antinomianism, and barefaced Calvinism, are one and the same thing; to clear myself, 1 present you with the creed of an honest, consistent, plain-spoken Calvinist. Read it without prejudice, and say, if it will not suit an abettor of speculative Antinomianism, and, upon occasion, a wild Ranter, wading through all the depths of practical Antinomianism, as well as an admirer of "the doctrines of grace."