fome good men in the proteftant churches have alfo fteadily refifted antinomian delufions and publicly defended the doctrine of falvation, not by the proper merit of works, but by the works of faith as a condition. But alas! as the Popes of Rome crushed, or excommunicated the former, almost as fait as they arofe; fo have petty proteftant Popes blackened, or filenced the latter. The true Quakers, from their firft appearance, have made as firm a ftand against the Antinomians, as the Valdenfes against the Papists; and it is well known that the Antinomians, who went from England to America with many pious puritans, whipt the Quakers, men and women, cut off their ears, made against them a law of banishment upon pain of death, and upon that tyrannical law hanged four of their preachers, three men and one woman in the last century, for preaching up the christian perfection of faith and obedience, and fo difturbing the peace of the elect, who were at ease in Sion, or rather in Babel.

I need not mention the title of heretic, with which that learned and good man Arminius is to this day dignified, for having made a firm and noble ftand against wanton Free Grace. The banishment or deprivation of Grotius, Epifcopius, and other Dutch divines, is no fecret. And it is well known that in England Mr. Baxter, Mr. Wesley, and Mr. Sellon are to this day an abhorrence to all antinomian flesh.

I am forry to fay, that, all things confidered, thefe good men have been treated with as much feverity by proteftant antinomians; as'ever Luther, Melanchton and Calvin were by popish pharifees: The antinomian and pharifaic fpirit run as much into one, as the two arms of a river that embraces an island: If they divide for a time, it is only to meet again, and encrease their mutual rapidity. I beg leave to speak my whole mind. It is equally clear from fcripture

C 2

and

†Their names were William Leddra, Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson, and Mary Dyer, See The hiftory of the Quakers, by Sewell; and New England judged, by George Bishop.

and reason, that we must believe, in order to be saved confiftently with God's mercy; and that we must obey, in order to be faved confiftently with his holiness. Thefe propofitions are the immoveable bafis of the two gofpel-axioms. Now if I reject either of them, it little matters which. If I blow my brains out, what fignifies it, whether I do it by clapping the mouth of a piftol to my right or to my left temple?

Error moves in a circle: extremes meet in one. A warm, popish pharifee, and a zealous, proteftant antinomian, are nearer each other than they imagine. The one will tell you, that by going to mafs and confeffion, he can get a fresh abfolution from the priest for any fin that he thall commit: the other, whofe mistake is ftill more pleafing to flesh and blood, affures you that he has already got an eternal absolution, fo that" under every ftate and circumftance he can poffibly be in, he is juftified from all things, his fins are for ever and for ever cancell'd."

But if they differ little in the idea of their imaginary priviledges, they have the honour of agreeing. in the main point. For, altho' the one makes a great noife about faith and free grace, and the other about works and true charity, they exactly meet in narrow grace and defpairing uncharitableness. The pharifee int Jerufalem afferts, that "out of the Jewish church there can be no falvation," and his companions in felf-election heartily fay amen! The pharifee in Rome declares, that "there is no falvation out of the apoftolic, Romish church," and all the catholic elect fet their feal to the antichriftian decree. And the antinomian in London infinuates [for he is afhamed to speak quite out in a proteftant country] that there is no falvation out of the Calvinistic, predeftinarian church. Hence, if you oppose his principles in ever fo rational and fcriptural a manner, he supposes that you are quite dark," that all your holiness is " Self made," and all your righteousness a cobweb spun by a poor Spider out of its own bowels: " and if he allows you a chance for your salvation, it is only upon a

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fuppofition,

fuppofition, that you may yet repent of your oppofition to his errors, and turn Calvinist before you die. But might not an inquifitor be as charitable? Might he not hope that the poor heretic, whom he has condemned to the flames, may yet be faved, if he cordially kiffes a crucifix, and fays Ave Maria at the stake?

And now, candid reader, look around, and fee what these seemingly oppofite errors have done for Chrift's church. Before the reformation, chriftendom was overspread with fuperftition and fanaticifm; and fince, with lukewarmnefs and infidelity. But let us defcend to particulars.

:

What has Pharifaifm done for the church of Rome ? It has publicly rent from her all the proteftant kingdoms, and fecretly turned against her an innumerable multitude of deifts for while bigots continue ridiculous bigots ftill; men of wit, headed by ingenious infidels, continually pour undeferved contempt upon christianity, thro' the deferved wounds which they give to popery. They reprefent Chrift's rational and humane religion as one of the worst in the world, unjustly charging it with the perfecuting fpirit, and horrible maffacres of thofe Catholics fo called, who mangling the truth, and running away with one half of the body of chriftian divinity, difgrace the whole by childish fooleries, and worfe than barbarian uncharitableness.

And what does Pharifaifm for the proteftant churches? So far as it prevails, fpreads it not around its fatal leaven, a general indifference about heartfelt religion? Turns it not the lively oracles of God into a dead letter, the facraments into empty ceremonies, the means of grace into rattles to quiet a guilty confcience with, the precious blood of Christ into a common thing, his hallowed crofs into an inglorious tree, external devotion into a cloak for fecret hypo. crify; and fome acts of apparent benevolence into the rounds of a ladder, the bottom of which reaches hell,

C 3

and

1

and behold fpiritual fiends [all manner of diabolical rempers] are feen continually afcinding and descending

on it ?

Does it not incline us to defpife those who are eminently pious, as if they were out of their fenfes ; to defpair of those who are notoriously wicked, as if they were abfolute reprobates; and to prefer a popu lar imitator of Barabbas, to a meek follower of Jefus ? Does it not prompt us to lay an undue ftrefs upon trifles, and to make an endless ado about fome frivolous circumstance of external worship, while we pass over judgment, mercy, and the love of God? And by that means, does it not confirm modern Herodians in their antinomianifm, and modern Sadducees in their infidelity? In a word, does it not render the ftiff neck stiffer, the blind understanding blinder, the hard heart flouter, the proud spirit more rebellious, more indifferent about mercy, more averfe to gofpel-grace, more fatanical, readier for all the turfes of the law, and siper for all the woes of the gofpel?

But let us confider the other extreme. What has Calvinifm done for Geneva? Alas! it has in a great de gree fhock'd and driven it into arianifm, focinianifm, and infidelity. See the account lately given of it in the French Encyclopedia: Article Geneva.

Many of the clergy of Geneva [fays judicious Mr. "D'Alembert]no longer believe the divinity of Jefus "Chrift, of which Calvin their leader was a zealous defender, and for which he had Servetus + burned,

" &c.

+ Servetus's herefy is thus defcribed in the xivth of the xl Articles ef religion, which the minifters of Geneva ftill fubfcribe, and which, if I mistake not, were drawn up by Calvin himself. "We likewife "deteft the devilish imaginations of Servetus, who attributes to our "Lord Jefus Chrift an imaginary divinity; for as much as he fays, "that he is the idea and pattern of all things; and calls him God's "fon in a perfonal or formal manner; and moreover fuppofes him to "have a body made up of three uncreated elements, thus mixing and "deftroying both the natures of Chrift." This herefy of Servetus, which we may well fuppcfe is not placed here in the moft favourable light, does not differ much frem the fentiment of thofe English di1 vines,

"&c: They believe that there are punishments "in an other world, but only for a limited time; "thus purgatory, which was one of the chief caufes "of the reformation, is now the only punishment "which many proteftants admit after death. A new "proof this, that man is a being full of contradic"tions. To fum up all in one word, the religion of many paftors at Geneva is perfect Socinianifm." What good has Calvinifm done in England? Alas! very little. When a bow is bent beyond its proper degree of tenfion, does it not fly to pieces? When you violently pull a tree towards the weft, if it recovers itself, does it not violently fly to the eaft Has not this generally been the cafe with respect to all the truths of God, which have been forced out of their fcriptural place one way or another? Calvinism in the days of O. Cromwell, was at the very fame height of fplendor, at which Popery had attained in the days of king Henry the VIIIth, and they fhare the fame downfall. Mole ruunt fuå. At the reformation the FIRST grand doctrine of chriftianity, [falvation by grace thro' faith] which had been forced out of its place, and almoft broken by the papifts, fied back upon them with fuch violence, that it fhook the holy fee, frightened the Pope, and made fome of the richest jewels fall from his triple crown. In like manner the SECOND grand doctrine of chriftianity [falvation not by the proper merit of works, but by the works of faith as a condition] which had been ferved by the antinomians juft as the first gofpel axiom by the papifts, recovering itself out of their hands, flew back upon

them

vines, who have confidered the Father as the one felf exiftent Unity, and the Son as the one infinite variety in this eternal Unity: fo that, of course, fomething in him is the idea and pattern of all that exifts, except fin and the curfe. Nor is what Dr. Watts fays of the fuperangelical nature of the Logos, and of his appearing in an angelical body before his incarnation, fo very far from Servetus's doctrine of Chrift's fpiritual and wonderful body, when he appeared as an angel to the patriarchs. See the fermons of Peter Sterry, fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge, on Pfaim xlv. 1, 2. And Dr. Watts's 4th differtation concerning the Trinity.