The following paffages I fhould imagine, feem fcarcely reconcilable with the doctrine of the total and final amiffibility of real grace. "True faith will fhew forth itself, and cannot long be idle: for, as it is written, the juft man doth live by his faith; he never fleepeth, nor is idle, when he would wake and be well occupied. And God, by his prophet Jeremy, faith, That he is an happy and bleffed man, which hath faith and confidence in God: for he is like a tree fet by the water fide, and spreadeth his roots abroad towards the moisture, and feareth not heat when it cometh his leaf will be green, and will not cease to bring forth his fruit: even fo, faithful men (putting away all fear of adverfity) will fhew forth the fruit of their good works, as occafion is offered to do them." First homily on faith, p. 21.

"All thofe, therefore, have great cause to be full of joy, that be joined to Chrift with true faith, ftedfast hope, and perfect charity; and not to fear death nor everlasting damnation. For death cannot deprive them of Jefus Chrift, nor any fin can condemn them that are grafted furely in him, who is their only joy, treasure, and life." Second homily against fear of death, p. 56.

"The juft man falleth feven times, and rifeth again. Though the godly do fall, yet they walk not on purposely in fin; they ftand not ftill, to continue and tarry in fin; they fit not down like careless men, without all fear of God's just punishment for fin but, defying fin, through God's great grace and infinite mercy they rife again, and fight against fin." Second homily on certain places of Scriptures, p. 226.

"Chrift Jefus, the prophets, the apostles, all and the true minifters of his word; yea, every jot and tittle in the Holy Scripture, have been, is, and fhall be for evermore, the favour of life unto eternal

life, unto all those whose hearts God hath purified by true faith." Ibid. p. 228.

"After the loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards mankind, not according to the righteousness that we had done, but according to his great mercy, he faved us by the fountain of the new-birth, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghofst, which he poured upon us abundantly, through -Jefus Chrift our Saviour; that we being once juftified by his grace, fhould be heirs of eternal life through hope and faith in his blood." Homily on the nativity, p. 247.

"St. Peter thanketh God, the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, for his abundant mercy; because he hath begotten us (faith he) unto a lively hope, by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift from death, to enjoy an inheritance immortal, that never shall perith, which is laid up in heaven for them that be kept by the power of God through faith." Homily on the refurrection, p. 264.

"He hath ranfomed fin, overcome the devil, death, and hell, and hath victoriously gotten the better hand of them all, to make us free and safe from them. And knowing that we be, by this benefit of his refurrection, rifen with him by our faith, unto life everlasting: being in full furety of our hope, that we fhall have our bodies likewise raised from death, to have them glorified in immortality, and joined to his glorious body: having, in the mean while, this holy fpirit within our hearts, as a feal and pledge of our everlasting inheritance. By whofe affiftance, we be replenished with all righte oufnefs; by whofe power we shall be able to fubdue all our evil affections, rifing against the pleasures of God." Ibid. p. 265, 266.

"The faithful have their life, their abiding in him; their union, and, as it were, their incorporation with him." Firft homily on the facrament,

P. 272.

"Neither

"Neither doth he," [the Holy Ghoft] " think it fufficient inwardly to work the fpiritual and newbirth of man, unlefs he do alfo dwell and abide in him." Firft homily for Whitfunday, p. 280.

"Very liberal and gentle is the spirit of wifdom. In his power fhall we have fufficient ability to know our duty to God. In him fhall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in our duty. In him fhall we be meet vellels to receive the grace of Almighty God for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind, by his fecret working. And he only is prefent every where by his invifible power, and containeth all things in his dominion. He lighteneth the heart, to conceive worthy thoughts of Almighty God: he fitteth in the tongue of man, to ftir him to speak his honour. He only ministereth spiritual ftrength to the powers of our foul and body. To hold the way which God had prepared for us, to walk rightly in our journey, we must acknowledge that it is in the power of his fpirit, which helpeth our infirinity." Third homily for Rogation week, P. 299.

So fpeaks the Church of England: and fo will fhe ever speak, while her liturgy, her articles, and homilies, ftand as they do. Thefe are the doctrines, which he holds: thefe the truths, to which all her clergy have fubfcribed *: truths thefe, which have no more to do with Methodifm (properly fo called), than they have with Mahometanifm. To our departure from the above principles of the Reformation, are chiefly owing, 1. That the Church and churchmen are the fcorn of infidels. 2. That fo great a part of the common people of this land are funk into fuch deplorable ignorance of divine things, as is unparalleled in any other Proteftant country. 3. That our Churches are, in many places, fo

Well, therefore, might the Houfe of Commons pafs a condemnatory vote concerning Montague's Book, written in favour of Arminianifm: fee Life of Laud, p. 148 and 180, with Laud's Anim. p. 181.

empty;

empty; while diffenting meetings are generally as full as they can hold. The plain, but melancholy truth, is, that, in various parts of this kingdom, multitudes of perfons, who are churchmen upon principle, are forced to go to meeting, in order to hear the doctrines of their own Church preached. And, as to the totally ignorant, and openly profane, they care not whether they attend on any public worship or not. To the fame deviation from our established doctrines, we may, 4. Impute, in great measure, the vast and ftill increafing fpread of infidelity amongst us. Chriftianity, fhorn of its peculiar and diftinguishing principles, and reduced to little more than a dry fyftem of Ethics, can take but fmall hold of mens hearts, and is itself but a better fpecies of Deifm. Many graceless perfons, are yet men of good fenfe: and, when fuch confider the prefent ftate of religion in this country, how is it poffible for them not to reafon in a manner fimilar to this? There is a book, called the Bible, in which fuch and fuch doctrines are written as with a funbeam. There is alfo an establishment, called the Church, which teaches the felf fame doctrines, and is the very echo of that book. This Bible is faid, by the clergy, to be of divine authority, and a revelation from God. And, for the Church, they tell us, it is the beft and pureft in the world; and indeed, unlefs they thought it fo, nothing could juftify their folemn fubfcription to its decifions. Yet, how many of them open their mouths, and draw their pens, against thofe very decifions to which they have set their hands? Can thofe of them, who do this, really believe the Scriptures to be divine, and their Church to be in the right? Does it not rather look as if religion was no more than a state-engine, on ore hand; and a genteel trade, on the other?" Such I more than fear, is the conclufion, unhappily inferred,

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See Mr. Slofs on the Trinity; pref. p. 1o.

by

by thousands, from the conduct of fome, who lift up their heel against the Church, while they eat her bread; or as Dr. Young expreffes it, "Pluck down the vine, and get drunk with the grapes.". To the fame fource may be traced the rapid and alarming progrefs of Popery in this kingdom. Would we lay the axe to the root of this evil? Let us forfake our Arminianifm, and come back to the doctrines of the Reformation. That these are Calvinistic, has, I think, been fully proved: and, fhould these proofs be deemed infufficient, there are more in referve. A man muft draw up a prodigioufly large index expurgatorius to our articles, homilies, and liturgy, before he can diveft the Church of her Calvinifm. As long as these, in their present form, remain the standards of her faith fo long will predeftination be an eminent part of it. We might more plaufibly, with the philofopher of old, deny that there is any fuch thing as motion, than deny this glaring, palpable, ftareface truth. Whilft the Calviniftic doctrines were the language of our pulpits, as well as of our articles; the Reformation made a fwift and extenfive progrefs. But, ever fince our articles and our pulpits have been at variance, the Reformation has been at a stand. At a stand, did I fay? I faid too little. Proteftantism has, ever fince, been visibly on the decline. Look round England, look round London. Is not Popery gaining ground upon us every day? And no wonder. Arminianifm is the bafis of it. Figuratively fpeaking, the Arminian points are five of the feven hills, on which the myftic Babylon is built. It gives a true Papift lefs pain to hear of pope Joan, than of predeftination. That I do not affirm things at random, in calling Arminianifm the very effence of Popery, will appear from the following thort antithefis, wherein the doctrines of our own Church, and those of Rome, refpecting fome, of the articles under debate, are contrafted together, in the very words of each Church.

CHURCH