himself, that he will deny them that deny him; that he will finally own us as his difciples, IF WE CONTINUE in his words; and that he, who ENDURETH TO THE END, the fame fhall be SAVED?-Zelotes finds it eafier to raise difficulties, than to remove those which are thrown in his way. He comes therefore, with his mouth full of objections against my second declaration. Let us lend him an ear, and give him an anfwer.

OBJ. I. "If with refpect to the doctrine of SECOND causes, and SECOND means, of eternal falvation, you have no truft or confidence to be faved AS A PENITENT, OBEDIENT, and PERSEVERING BELIEVER, but by true repentance, faith, obedience, and perfeverance; you cannot repofe your whole trust upon God alone; nor can you give Chrift all the glory of your falvation."

ANSWER. To make God a 2d CAUSE, and Christ a 2d MEANS of falvation, is not to give them the glory: it is to pull them out of their throne, and make them ftoop to an office unworthy of their matchlefs dignity. If the king gave you a purfe of gold, could you not give him all the glory of his generofity, without fuppofing that he was the laborious digger of the golden ore, the ingenious coiner of the gold, and the diligent knitter of the purfe? If you complimented him in all these refpects, left he should not have ALL the glory; would you not pour contempt upon his greatnefs? And do you not fee, that, by a parity of reason, what you call "robbing God and Chrift of their glory," is only refusing to dishonour them, by afcribing them a fhameful office; I mean the office of a fecond cause, or of a Secondary means of falvation? Can you not conceive, that to give a general the honour of a fergeant, under pretence of giv ing him ALL the honour, is to fet him below an enfign, and rank him with an halberd-bearer? Again: When you say, that, in general, upon a journey, with refpect to SECOND caufes and means, you have no truft, or confidence, but in your money, in the goodness of

you

your horfes and carriage, in the paffable ftate of the roads, in the skill of your driver, &c. do you betray any mistrust of divine providence? On the contrary, does not your diftin&tion of SECOND Caufes and seCOND means fhow, that you referve your PRIMARY truft and confidence for God, who is the FIRST CAUSE of your bleffings; and for his providential care over you, which is the FIRST MEANS of your preservation ? And if a pretender to orthodoxy charged you with atheism or herefy for your affertion; would you not give him your vote to be an officer of the proteftant-inquifition; if the black tribunal, which totters in Spain, fhould ever be fet up in England?

OBJ. II. "Your firft declaration indeed exalts Chrift; but the fecond uncrowns him to crown our graces- yea, to crown OURSELVES as poffeffed of such and fuch graces; which is the rankeft popery, and the very quinteffence of pharifaifm."

ANSWER. How can my crowning repentance, faith, and obedience with a fcriptural coronet, rob Chrit of his peculiar crown? Are we not indebted to him, both for our graces, and for the coronet, with which he rewards our acceptance and improve. ment of his favours? Would it be right in you to reprefent me as an enemy to the crown and king of England, for afferting that Barons, Earls, and Dukes have received from him, or his predeceffors, the right of wearing coronets, or fecondary crowns? Is it not the glory of cur So ereign, to be at the head of a crowned peerage? And would you really honour him, if on a coronation day you fecured the glory of his imperial crown, by kicking the coronets off the heads of all the peers, who come to pay him homage? Would he thank you for that ill-judged proof of your loyalty? Would he not reprove you for your unparallel'd rafhnefs? And think you

that Christ will commend the antinomian zeal, with which you fet up the great image of finished falvation in the plain of myftical Geneva, upon an heap of the coronets wherewith he and his apoftles have

crowned the graces of believers? Can you fearch the facred records without finding there the doctrine, which you reprefent as treafonable or heretical? Did you never read, Ŏ woman great is THY faith! THY FAITH hath SAVED thee? And what is this, but allowing believers to wear a falvation coronet - a coronet this, which they will justly caft before the throne of the grace that gave it them, and offered it all the day long to those, who obftinately put it from them? - Did you never read, We are SAVED by HOPE:- Be FAITHFUL unto death, and I will give thee the CROWN of life: - He is the author of ETERNAL SALVATION to them that OBEY him: · He will give the CROWN of life to them that LOVE him, &c ? Is not this granting a falvation coronet to the hopeful, faithful, obedient, loving believer ? And if you throw my fcales away, and cry

Out

"Armenian" methodism turned out rank popery at laft," think you there are no bibles left in the kingdom? No people able to read fuch fcriptures as thefe ? Let no man BEGUILE you of your reward thro' voluntary humility-fair Speeches and deceivableness of unrighteousness. Hold fast that which thou haft, that no man take THY CROWN, on any pretext whatever: no not on the most plaufible of all pretexts, Pray, give me THY CROWN, for it is not confiftent with that of the Redeemer." - Who could fuggest to good men, fo artful and dangerous a doctrine ? Who, but the deceitful adverfary, that can as easily transform himself into an angel of light, to rob us of our crown of righteousness, as he formerly could tranfform himself into a ferpent, to rob our first parents of their crown of innocence?

OBJ. III." You may turn and wind as long as you pleafe; but you will never be able to reconcile your doctrine with the doctrines of grace; for if you have the LEAST truft and confidence in your graces, you do not truft WHOLLY in the Lord; you truft PARTLY in an arm of flesh, in direct oppofition to this fcripture, Curfed The title of a calviniftic pamphlet published against the fourth check.

Curfed is the man, who trufteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. Jer. xvii. 5.”

your

ANSWER. I grant that our doctrine can never be reconciled to what you call "the doctrines of grace, because partial doctrines of grace are irreconcilable with the holy, free, and equitable gofpel of Chrift: but, we can as easily reconcile the PRIMARY truft mentioned in our firft declaration, with the SBCONDARY trust mentioned in the fecond, as you can reconcile my fecond scale with the fift, Our fecondary confidence, which arifes from the teftimony of a good confcience, no more militates in our breast with our primary confidence, which arifes from the love of Chrift; than our regard for the queen excludes our respect for the king. In myftick Geneva indeed they teach, to the honour of the king, that the royal fpoufe is all filthy but in our Jerufalem we affert, that he is all glorious, and that the king greatly defires her beauty. To uncrown her therefore, and load her with infamy, can never be the way of honouring and pleafing our Melchifedec.

With refpect to the paffage, which you produce from Jeremiah, the fenfe of it is fixed by what immediately follows, And whofe heart departeth from the Lord. Thefe words fhow, that the trust forbidden in that fcripture, is only sUCH a trust in man and things, as makes our hearts depart from the Lord. Now this can never be the trust and confidence mentioned in our fecond declaration: For, in both declarations, we fecure to God, as the first caufe; and to Chrift, as the first means, ALL the glory which is worthy of the first caufe, and of the first means: and, I repeat it, if you afcribe to the Lord any other glory, you infult him as much as you would do a prince, if you gave him the glory which belongs to his confort or his cook :-I mean the glory of bearing fine children, and of making good fauces.

Again: There is no medium between some degree of truft, and the utmost degree of diftruft. Now if the fcripture which you produce, abfolutely forbids

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every

every degree of inferior traf in man or things, in follows that the more full we are of distrust and diabolical fufpicions, the more godly we are. And thus, for fear of putting any degree of fecondary trust in man or in things, we must mistrust all our wives as adultereffes, all our friends as traitors, all our neighbours as incendiaries, all our fervants as murderers, and all our food as poifon. But if this fair confequence of your doctrine ftands, what becomes of charity, which thinketh no evil, and hopeth all things? And if the words of Jeremiah are to be understood in your narrow fenfe, what becomes of Chrift himself, who rej ofed a degree of truft in man-yea, in Judas, whilft be counted him faithful? That expreffion of Job therefore, He [the Lord] putteth no truft, (that is, no abfolute truft) in his faints, is to be underflood fo as not to contradi&t the words of St. Paul, He [the Lord] counted me faithful, [i. e. trufted in me] putting me into the ministry; or the prophetic ords of David concerning Christ and Judas, yea, mine own familiar friend IN WHOM I TRUSTED, who did eat of my [multiplied] bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

To conclude: If England fmiles yet at the im, becility of the king, who durft not venture over London-bridge, and wondered at those who trusted that fabrick as a solid bridge; shall we admire Zelotes's wifdom, who wonders at our having a scriptural, inferior trust in the graces which form the chriftian character? and fhall we not count it an honour to be fufpected of herely, for having a fure trust and confidence, that true repentance, and nothing else, will anfwer for us the end of repentance ?—that true faith, and nothing else, will answer for us the end of faith?

that evangelical obedience, and not an imputed righteoufnefs, will anfwer for us the end of evangelical obedience? and that final perfeverance, and not whims about "finished falvation," will anfwer for us the end of final perfeverance?

Having thus anfwered Zelotes's objections against the declaration which guards the fecond gofpel-axiom, I fhall now prefent him with fome obfervations upon the importance of that axiom.

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