Bes me to ufe. Mr. Tiplady himfelf will hardly deny, that the early Fathers held the doctrine of our firft fcale. And, that they held the doctrine of the Second, I prove by the following extracts from their excellent epiftles.

BARNABAS fays in his Catholic Epifle, Let us • give heed unto the last days, for all the time of our

LIFE AND FAITH SHALL PROFIT US NOTHING, IF

• WE DO NOT endure unjust things, and future temp⚫tations.-Let us, being fpiritual, be made a PERFECT temple to God, AS MUCH AS IN US LIES. Let us medirate upon the FEAR of God, and en• deavour to KEEP his commandments, THAT WE MAY REJOICE in his judgments: The Lord accept'ing NO MAN'S PERSON JUDGETH the world: Every man fhall receive according to HIS DEEDS. If he be good, His GOODNESS GOES BEFORE HIM; if wicked, the ways of his wickednefs follow after him. TAKE HEED LEST, at any time, BEING • CALLED, and at ease, we do not FALL ASLEEP ́in our fins, and the wicked one getting power over us, ́ ́ ́&C. 'EXCLUDE US FROM THE KINGDOM of the Lord. Understand a little more; having feen the great figns and wonders among the people of THE JEWS, and that THE LORD DOES SO LEAVE THEM; therefore let us TAKE HEED, left haply WE BE FOUND, as it is written, Many CALLED, FEW CHO· SEN. That man fhall JUSTLY PERISH, who HATH KNOWLEDGE of the way OF TRUTH, and yet WILL NOT refrain himself from the dark way.' Page 6, 7,8.

6

I grant to Mr. Toplady that Barnabas fays, page 28, Thou shalt not command thy maid or man-fervant WITH BITTERNESS, efpecially those who hope

in

*Not having the original, I extract what follows of St. Clement» from Mr. Welley's Chriftian Library, Vol. 1. The quotations from the Epiftles of Barnabas, Polycarp, and Ignatius, are taken from the tranflation of Tho. Elborowe, Vicar of Chifwick. It is to be met with in his book, called A profpect of primitive christianity as it was left by Chrift and his apoftles; Printed in the Savoy,

in him, LEST THOU BE FOUND DESTITUTE OF THE FEAR OF GOD, who is over both: For he came not to call men' to the blessings of chriftianity] by their perfons,' [that is, according to the context, he came not to call MASTERS only] but thofe whom his fpitit prepared:' [whether they be fervants or mafters: For God called to chriftian liberty the devout foldiers and fervants who waited on Cornelius, as well as Cornelius himself; giving them equally the Spirit of adoption, because they were equally prepared for it by the fpirit of conviction and bondage, which they had not received in vain.]-From the last words of this quotation Mr. Toplady fondly infers the Calvinifm of Barnabas; whereas from the words, which I have produced in capitals, it is evident, that 'this apostle was as far from calvinifm as St. James himfelf: For they fhow that Barnabas thought, a believer could BE FOUND DESTITUTE OF THE FEAR OF GOD, i. e. could fo fall away into a gracelèss ftate, as to make fhipwreck even of THE FEAR OF GOD, only by COMMANDING A SERVANT WITH

BITTERNESS.

This historic proof of Barnabas's calvinifm is fo much the more fürprizing, as he fays a few lines below, Meditate to SAVE A SOUL by the word. And "thou shalt LABOUR FOR THE REDEMPTION OF THY SINS. Give to every one that asketh of thee; but KNOW WITH ALL who is the GOOD RECOMPENSER OF THE REWARD, &c. it is therefore an excellent thing for him who learns the righteous commands of the Lord, &c. to WALK IN THEM: for the who DOES THEM, fhall BE GLORIFIED in the kingdom of God: but he who CHUSETH the other things, SHALL PERISH with his works. Therefore there is "" a réfurrection and a RETRIBUTION. The Lord is at hand, and his REWARD. I intreat you again and again, that ye be good LAWGIVERS TO YOURSELVES, and that ye remain FAITHFUL COUNSELLORS TO YOURSELVES, -Be ye taught of God, seeking out what the Lord REQUIRETH FROM YOU,

AND

According to these definitions it appears, that our fphere of liberty encreases with our powers. The more powers animals have, and the more ways they can use thofe powers, the more BRUTAL liberty they have alfo Thus, thofe creatures that can, when they please, walk upon the earth, fly thro' the air, or fwim in the water, as fome förts of fowls, have a more extensive liberty than a worm, which has the freedom of one of thofe elements only, and that too in a very imperfect degree.

As by the help of a good horfè a rider increases his power to move fwiftly, and to go far; fo by the help of fcience and application, a philofopher can penetrate into the fecrets of naturé, and an Archytas or à Newton can

Aerias tentare domos, animo que rotundum
Tranfmigrare polum.

Such geniufes have undoubtedly more liberty of THOUGHT than thofe fots, whofe minds are fettered by ignorance and excefs, and whofe imagination can juft make fhift to flutter from the tavern to the playhoufe, and back again. By a parity of reafon, they, who enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God, who can in a moment recollect their thoughts, fix them upon the noblest objects, and raise them, not only to the stars, like Archytas; but to the throne of God, like St. Paul; they, who can become all things to all men, be content in every station, and even fing at midnight in a dungeon, regardless of their empty ftomachs, their fcourged backs, and their feet made faft in the flocks; they, who can command their paffions and appetites, are free from fin, and find God's fervice perfect freedom;"-thefe happy people, I say, enjoy far more liberty of HEART than the brutish men, who are fo enflaved to their appetites and paffions, that they have juft liberty enough left thêm, not to ravish the women they fet their eyes upon, and

not

Sear to the ftars, and with his mind travel round the uni

not to murder the men they are angry with. But altho' the liberty of God's children is glorious now, it will be far more fo, when their regenerate fouls fhall be matched in the great day with bodies blooming as youth, beautiful as angels, radiant as the fun, powerful as lightning, immortal as God, and capable of keeping pace with the Lamb, when he fhall lead them to new fountains of bliss, and run with them the endless round of celestial delights.

To return: Innumerable are the degrees of liberty peculiar to various orders of creatures but no animals are accountable to their owners for the use of their powers, but they which have a pecaliar degree of knowledge. Nor are they accountable, but in proportion to the degree of their knowledge and liberty. Your horfe, for instance, has power to walk, trot, and gal. lop you want him to do it alternately, and if he does not obey you, when you have intimated your will to him in a manner fuitable to his capacity, you may, without folly and cruelty, fpur or whip him into a reasonable ufe of his liberty and powers: for inferior creatures are in fubjection to their poffeffors in the Lord. But if his feet were tied, or his legs broken; and you fpurred him to make him gallop; or if you whipped a hen to make her fwim, and an ox to make him fly; you would exercise a foolish and tyrannical dominion over them. This cruel abfurdity however, or tantamount, is charged upon Chrift by thofe, who pretend to "exalt him" moft. They thus difhonour him, as often as they infinuate that the children of men have no more power to believe than hens to fwim, or oxen to fly; and that the Father of mercies will damn a majority of them, for not ufing a power, which he determined they fhould never have.

Some people affert, that man has a little liberty in natural, but none in piritual things. I diffent from them for the following reafons. (1) All men (monfters not excepted) having a degree of the human form, they probably have also a degree of human ca

pacity-a measure of thofe mental powers, by which we receive the knowledge of God: a knowledge this, which no horse can have, and which is certainly of a Spiritual nature.-(2) The fame apoftle, who informs us, that the natural man [fo called the man, who quenches the fpirit of grace under his difpenfation, cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, because they are difcerned only by the light of the fpirit, which he quenches or refifts-the fame apoftle, I say, declares, that What may be KNOWN of God is manifeft in them (the most abandon'd heathens) for God hath fhewed it unto them-so that they are without excufe; because, when they KNEW God [in fome degree] they glorified him not as God, according to the degree of that knowledge: but became brutish, befotted perfons; or, to speak St. Paul's language, they BECAME vain in their imaginations—they BECAME fools-their foolish heart WAS DARKENED-WHEREFORE God gave them up to a reprobate mind, and they were left in the deplorable condition of the christian apoftates defcribed by St. Jude, fenjual, having not the spirit: In a word, they became PSYCHICOI

MERE animal men, the FULL reverse of Spiritual men: Cor. ii. 14. Far from being the wiser for the light, that [graciously] enlightens every man who cometh into the world, they became inexcufable by changing the truth of God into a lie, and turning their light to darkness, thro' the wrong ufe which they made of their liberty.

When the advocates for neceffity deny man the talent of Spiritual liberty, which divine wisdom and grace

PSYCHE is fometimes taken only for the principle of animal life: Thus, Rev. 8, 9. The third part of the fea became blood, and the third part of the creatures which were in the fea, and had PsyCHAS, not a nature, but ANIMAL LIFE, died. Hence Calvin himself renders the word pfychicos, ANIMAL-MAN, tho' our tranflators render it NATURAL man, as if the greek word were phyficos. And upon their mistake, a vast majority of mankind are rafhly reprefented as being abfolutely deftitute of all capacity to receive the faving truths of religion.