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cious looks, according to the doctrine of fecondary, inftrumental caufes, Walk with me in white, for you are WORTHY, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you, for I was hungry and ye gave me meat, &c.] they cried [according to the doctrine of primary and properlymeritorious caufes] not "Salvation to our endeavours and good works;" but Salvation to OUR God, who fitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever

and ever.

[Thus, by the rules of celeftial courtesy, to which our Lord vouchfafes to submit in glory; while the laints juffly draw a veil over their works of faith, to extol only their Saviour's merits; He kindly paffes over his own blood and righteousness, to make mention only of their works and obedience. They, fetting their feal to the first gospel axiom, fhout with great truth," Salvation to God and the Lamb: And He, Yetting his feal to the fecond gofpel-axiom, replies with great condefcenfion: Salvation to them, that are worthy! Eternal falvation to all that obey me, Rev. iii. + Heb. v. 9.]

[Therefore, notwithstanding the perpetual affaults of proud pharifees, and of felf-humbled antinomians; the two gofpel- axioms ftand unfhaken upon the two fundamental, infeparable doctrines of faith and works

of proper merit in Chrift, and derived worthiness in his members. Penitent believers freely receive all from the God of grace and mercy, thro' Chrift; and humble workers freely return all to the God of holinefs and glory, thro' the fame adorable Mediator. Thus God has all the honour of freely beflowing upon us a crown of righteousness, in a way of judicious mercy and diftributive juftice; while we, thro' grace, have + all the honour of freely receiving it, in a way of penitential

(46) † OBJECTION. "We have all the honour thro' grace! (fays a friend of voluntary humility) What honour can you poflibly afcribe to man, when you have already afcribed all honour to God? But one, who begins his fermon by pleading for merit, may well conclude it by taking from God part of his bonour, deminion, and praife."

ANSWER,

penitential faith and obedient gratitude. To him therefore, one eternal Jehovah in Father Son and Holy Ghoft, be afcribed all the merit, honour, praise, and dominion, worthy of a God, for ever and ever.]

END OF THE GUARDED SERMON.

ANSWER. I plead only for an intereft in Chrift's merits thro' faith and the works of faith. This intereft I call derived worthiness, which would be as dishonourable to Chrift, as it is honourable to believers. I confefs also, that I afpire at the bonour of fhouting in heaven, Allelujah to God and the Lamb! In the mean time I hope, that I may pay an inferior bonour to all men, ascribe derived dominion to the king, bestow deferved praise upon my pious opponents, and claim the honour of being their obedient fervant in Chrift, without robbing the Lamb of his peculiar worthiness and God of his proper bonour, dominion, and praife.

I

APPENDIX.

Flatter myself that the preceding discourse shews, (1) that it is very poffible to preach free grace, without directly or indirectly preaching Calvinism and free wrath: And (2) that those who charge Mr. Wefley and me with fubverting the articles of our Church, which guard the doctrine of grace, do us great wrong. Should God fpare me, I fhall alfo bear my teftimony to the truth of the doctrine of conditional Predeftination and Election, maintained in the 17th article, to which I have not had an opportunity of fetting my feal in this work.

As I have honeftly laid my helvetic bluntnefs, and antinomian miftakes before the public in my notes; I am not confcious of having mifreprefented my old fermon in my enlarged difcourfe. Should however the keener eyes of my opponents difcover any real mif

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takes in my additions, &c. upon information I fhall be glad to acknowledge and rectify it. Two or three fentences I have left out, merely because they formed vain repetitions, without adding any thing to the sense. But, whenever I have, for confcience fake, made any alteration, that affects, or SEEMS to affect the doctrine; I have informed the reader of it, and of my reason for it in a note; that he may judge whether I was right twelve years ago, or whether I am now: And where there is no fuch note at the bottom of the page, there is an addition in the context, directing to the FIFTH note, where the alteration is acknowledged, and accounted for according to the reafonable condition, which I have made in the preface.

I particularly recommend the perufal of that note, of the first, and of the twenty first to thofe, who do not yet fee their way thro' the ftreights of pharifaifm and antinomianifm, thro' which I have been obliged to iteer my courfe in handling a text, which, of all others, feems at firft fight beft calculated to countenance the mistakes of my opponents.

Sharp-fighted readers will fee by my fermon, that nothing is more difficult than rightly to divide the word of God. The ways of Truth and Error lie clofe together, tho' they never coincide. When fome preachers fay, that "The road to heaven paffes very near the mouth of hell," they do not mean, that the road to heaven and the road to hell are one and the fame. If I affert, that the way of Truth runs parallel to the ditch of Error, I by no means intend to confound them. Let Error therefore come, in fome things, ever fo near Truth, yet it can no more be the Truth, than a filthy ditch, that runs parallel to a good road, can be the road.

You wonder at the athletic ftrength of Milo, that brawny man, who ftands like an anvil under the bruifing fit of his antagonist: Thro' the flowery paths of youth and childhood trace him back to his cradle ; and, if you pleafe, confider him unborn: He is Milo til. Nay view him juft conceived or quickened, and

tho

tho' your naked eye fcarcely difcovers the, punctum faliens, by which he differs from a non-entity or a lifelefs thing; yet even then the difference between him and a non-entity is not only real, but prodigious; for it is the vast difference between femething and nothing, between life and no life- In like manner trace back Truth to its firft ftamina; inveftigate it till you find its punctum faliens, its firft difference from Error; and even then, you will fee an effential, a capital difference between them, tho' your short-fighted or inattentive neighbour can perceive none.

It is often a thing little in appearance, that turns the fcale of truth; nevertheless, the difference between a fcale turned or not turned, is as real as the difference between a just and a falfe weight, between right and wrong. I make this observation : (1) To show that altho' my opponents come very near me in fome things, and I go very near them in others, yet the difference between us is as effential as the difference between light and darkness, truth and error: And (2) to remind them and myfelf, that we ought fo much the more to exercife chriftian forbearance towards each other, as we find it difficult, whenever we do not ftand upon our guard, to do juftice to every part of the Truth, without feeming to diffent even from ourfelves. However, our fhort-fightednefs and twilight knowledge do not alter the nature of things. The truth of the anti-pharifaic and anti-Crifpian gospel is as immutable as its eternal Author; and whether I have marked out its boundaries with a tolerable degree of juftnefs or not, I mult fay as the heathen poet:

Eft modus in rebus, funt certi denique fines,
Quos ultra citra que nequit confiftere rectum. †

Truth is confined within her firm bounds: nay, there a middie line equally distant from all extremes; on that line she stands, and to mifs her, you need only step over it to the right hand or to the left.

A SCRIP.

A

SCRIPTURAL ESSAY

On the astonishing rewardableness of Works according to the Covenant of Grace :

CONTAINING

I. A VARIETY of plain Scriptures, which shew, that HEAVEN ITSELF is the gracious REWARD of the WORKS of Faith, and that Believers may loje that Reward by bad Works. II. AN ANSWER to the moft plaufible Objections of the Solifidians against this Doctrine. III. SOME REFLECTIONS upon the unreasonableness of those, who fcorn to work with an Eye to the Reward, that God offers to excite us to Obedience.

To the Law and to the Teftimony. If. viii. 8.

FIRST PART.

AVING particularly guarded in the preced

Hing difcourfe the doctrine of SALVATION by the

covenant of grace, and having endeavoured to fecure the foundation of the gofpel against the unwearied attacks of the Pharifees; I fhall now particularly guard the WORKS of the covenant of grace, and by that means I fhall fecure the fuperftructure against the perpetual affaults of the Antinomians: a part of my work this, which is fo much the more important, as the ufe of a trong foundation is only to bear up an ufeful ftructure.

None but fools act without motive. To deprive a wife man of every motive to act, is to keep him in total inaction: and to rob him of fome grand motive, is confiderably to weaken his willingness to act, or his fervour in acting. The burning love of God is undoubtedly

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