grace into lafcivioufnefs and commit all uncleanness with greediness that they fhall all infallibly fing in heaven, in confequence of their moit grievous falls on earth; and that a kind of hypocritical, lying freegrace is to be preached to all finners, which neceffarily fhuts up most of them under the abfolute free-wrath of a God ever graceless, and ever merciless towards the majority of mankind. Now, my Lady, as I am perfuaded that you do not admire fuch an immoral and narrow gofpel; as I believe, that, if at any time it creeps into your chapels, it is without your approbation, under the mask of decency, and only by the means of the fpecious phrafes of free gospel, electing, everlasting love, finifhed falvation, and free, diftinguishing grace, which, according to the analogy of the modifh faith, SWEETLY make way for the infeparable and BITTER doctrines of a confined gospel, of everlasting hate, reprobating unmercifulness, finished damnation, and free, diftinguishing wrath; and as I do your Ladyfhip the justice to acknowledge, that your moft earneft defire is to fupport what appears to you a free and holy gofpel at the expence of your fortune, life, and character; I beg, my Lady, you will alfo do me the juftice to believe, that if I oppofe the folifidian-gospel of the day, it is only because it appears to me a confined and unholy gospel, calculated to fofter the antinomianifm of Laodicean believers, and to render Chrift's undefiled religion contemptible to the RATIONAL, and execrable to the MORAL world. If you grant me this requeft, I fhall only trouble you with one more, which is to believe, that, notwithstanding the part I have taken in the prefent controverfy, I remain with my former refpect and devotedness, My Lady, Your Ladyship's Madeley, March 12, 1774. J. FLETCHER. ΑΝ ΑΝ ESSAY ON TRUTH, &c. INTRODUCTION. XCEEDINGLY forry thould I be, if the testi Emony which I have borne to the neceffity of good works, caufed any of my readers to do the worst of bad works, that is, to neglect believing, and to depend upon fome of the external, faithless performances, which conceited pharifees call "good works ;" and by which they abfurdly think to make amends for their fins, to purchafe the Divine favour, to fet afide God's mercy, and to fuperfede Chrift's atoning blood. Therefore, left fome unwary fouls, going from one extreme to the other, fhould fo unfortunately avoid antinomianism, as to run upon the rocks, which are rendered famous by the deftruction of the pharifees, I fhall once more vindicate the fundamental, anti-pharifaic doctrine of falvation by faith: I fay once more, because I have already done it in my guarded sermon: and to the fcriptures, articles, and arguments produced in that piece, I fhall now add rational, and yet fcriptural obfervations, which, together with appeals to matter of fact, will, I hope, foften the prejudices of judicious moralifts against the doctrine of faith, and reconcile confiderate folifidians to the doctrine of works. In order to this, I defign in general to prove, that true faith is the only plant, which can poffibly bear good works; that it lofes its operative nature, and dies when it produces them not; and that it as much furpaffes good works in importance, as the motion of the heart does all other bodily motions. Enquire we firft into the nature and ground of faving faith, SEC SECTION I. A plain definition of SAVING FAITH, how believing is the Gift of God, and whether it is in our power to believe. WH 7HAT is faith? It is believing heartily.-What is faving faith? I dare not fay, that it is "believing heartily, my fins are forgiven me for Chrift's fake;" for, if I live in fin, that belief is a deftructive conceit, and not Saving faith. Neither dare I fay, that "faving faith is only a fure truft and confidence, that Chrift loved me, and gave himself for me; for, if I did, I should damn almost all mankind for 4000 years. [See note 13, p. 43] Such definitions of faving faith are, I fear, too narrow to be juft, and too unguarded to keep out folifidianifm. A comparison may convince my readers of it. If they defired me to define man, and I said, "Man is a rational animal, that lives in France in the year 1774;' would they not ask me, whether I fuppofe, all the rational animals, that lived on this fide the English channel in 1773 were brutes? And if you defired to know what 1 mean by Saving faith, and I replied: It is a fupernatural belief, that Chrift has actually atoned for my fins upon the cross; would you not ask me, whether Abrahain, the father of the faithful, who would have believed a lie if he had believed this, had only damning faith? Το When the church of England, and Mr. Wesley give us particular definitions of faith, it is plain, that they confider it according to the chriftian difpenfation; the priviledges of which must be principally infifted upon among chriftians; 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 lofe a good confcience, and make shipwreck of the faith. To avoid therefore fuch mistakes; to contradict no fcriptures; to put no black mark of DAMNATION upon any man, that in any nation fears God and works righteoufnefs; to leave no room for folifidianifm; and to prefent the reader with a definition of faith adequate to the everlasting gospel, I would chufe to fay, that "juftifying or faving faith is believing the faving truth with the heart urto internal, and [as we have opportunity] unto external righteousness, according to our light and difpenfation." To St. Paul's words, Rom. x. 10, I add the epithets internal and external, in order to exclude, according to 1 John iii. 7, 8, the filthy imputation, under which fallen believers may, if we credit the antinomians, commit internal and external adultery, mental and bodily murder, without the leaft reasonable fear of endangering their faith, their intereft in God's favour, and their inamiffible title to a throne of glory. But, "How is Faith the gift of God?"-Some perfons think, that Faith is as much out of our power, as the lightening that fhoots from a diftant cloud : they fuppofe, that God drives finners to the fountain of Chrift's blood, as irrefiftibly as the infernal Legion drove the herd of swine into the fea of Galilee; and that a man is as paffive in the first act of faith, as Jonah was in the act of the fish, which caft him upon the fhore. Hence, the abfurd plea of many, who lay fait 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 fuppofes, that when God commands all men every where to repent, and to believe the gospel, he commands them to do what is as impoffible to them as the making of a new world. - (2) It fuppofes, that the terms of the covenant of grace are much harder than the terms of the covenant of works. For the old covenant 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 impoffible to us as the creation of a world, in which we can never have an hand. - (3) It fuppofes, that the promife of falvation being fufpended upon believing, a thing as impracticable to us as the making of a new world, we fhall as infallibly be damned, if God does not believe in, or for us, as we should be, if we were to make a world on pain of damnation, and God would not make it in our place.—(4) It fuppofes, that believing is a work, which belongs to God alone: for no man in his fenfes can doubt but creating a world, or its tantamount, believing, is a work which none but God can manage.-(5) It fuppofes, that [if he, who believeth not the divine record, makes God a liar, and shall be damned] whenever unbelievers are called upon to believe, and God refufes 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 circumftances, where I could have no chance of avoiding that crime and punishment, but by fubmitting to the alternative of creating a world. - (6) It fuppofes, that when Christ marveled at the unbelief of the Jews, he fhewed as little wifdom as I fhould, were I to marvel at a man for not creating three worlds as quickly as a believer can fay the three creeds. (7) That when Chrift reproved his difciples for their unbelief, he acted more unreasonably, than if he had rebuked them for not adding a new ftar to conftellation in heaven. every (8) That to exhort people to continue in the faith, is to exhort them to fomething as difficult, as to continue creating worlds. And lastly, that when Chrift fixes our damnation upon unbelief [fee Mark xvi. 16, and John iii. 18. ] he acts far more tyrannically than the king would do, if he iffued out a proclamation informing all his fubjects, that whofoever fhall not by such a time raise a new ifland within the British feas, fhall be infallibly put to the most painful and lingering death. Having thus expofed the erroneous fenfe, in which fome people fuppofe, that faith is the gift of God; I Ο beg |