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which do not affect the strength of the cause, and which we are ready to correct as soon as they shall be pointed out. I take the Searcher of hearts, and my judicious unprejudiced readers to witness, that through the whole of this controversy, far from concealing the most plausible objections, or avoiding the strongest arguments which are or may be advanced against our reconciling doctrine, I have carefully searched them out, and endeavoured to encounter them as openly as David did Goliath. Had our opponents followed this method, I doubt not but the controversy would have ended long ago, in the destruction of our prejudices, and in the rectifying of our mistakes. Oh! if we preferred the unspeakable pleasure of finding out the truth, to the pitiful honour of pleasing a party, or of vindicating our own mistakes, how soon would the useful fan of scriptural, logical, and brotherly controversy purge the floor of the Church! How soon would the light of truth, and the flame of love, burn the chaff of error, and the thorns of prejudice, with fire unquenchable !"

In such a temper did this saintly man address himself to the work of controversy; and he carried it on with correspondent candour, and with distinguished ability. His manner is diffuse, and the florid parts, and the unction, betray their French origin; but the reasoning is acute and clear; the spirit of his writings is beautiful, and he was master of the subject in all its bearings. His great object was to conciliate the two parties, and to draw the line between the Solifidian and Pelagian errors. For this purpose he composed a treatise, which he called an " Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism; or, Scripture Scales to weigh the gold of Gospel truth, and to balance a multitude of opposite scriptures." Herein he brought together, side by side, the opposite texts, and showed how they qualified each other: the opinion which he inferred seems to correspond more nearly with that of Baxter than of any other divine. He traced, historically, the growth of both the extremes against which he contended. Luther, being an Augustinian monk,

brought with him, from his convent, the favourite opinions of Augustine, to which he became the more attached, because* of the value which the Romanists affixed to their superstitious works, and the fooleries and abominations which had sprung from this cause. Most of the reformers, and more especially Calvin, took the same ground. The Jesuits, seeing their error, inclined the Romish church to the opposite extreme; and, after a while, Jansenius formed a Calvinistic party among the Catholics, while Arminius tempered the doctrine of the reformed churches. Antinomianism was the legitimate consequence on the one part, and Mr. Fletcher thought that the English clergy were tending toward Pelagianism on the other. His great object was to trim the balance, and, above all, to promote Christian charity and Christian union. 66 My regard for unity," said he, "recovers my drooping spirits, and adds new strength to my wasted body (he was believed, at that time, to be in the last stage of a consumption); I stop at the brink of the grave, over which I bend, and, as the blood oozing from my decayed lungs does not permit me vocally to address my contending brethren, by means of my pen I will ask them, if they can properly receive the holy communion, while they wilfully remain in disunion with their brethren, from whom controversy has needlessly parted them!" He was then about to leave England, for what appeared to be a forlorn hope of deriving benefit from his native air; but, before his departure, he expressed a desire of seeing those persons with whom he had been engaged in this controversy, that, "all doctrinal differences apart, he might testify his sincere regret for having given them the least displeasure, and receive from them some condescending assurance of recon(ciliation and good-will." All of them had not generosity enough to accept the invitation; they who did

Thus the old author of Neonomianism unmasked, places "The Calvinian Society in Gracious-street, at the sign of the Geneva Arms, just opposite to the sign of Cardinal Bellarmine's Head, at the foot of the bridge that crosses Reformation River, that divides between the Protestant and Popish cantons."

were edified, as well as affected, by the interview; and some of them, who had had no personal acquaintance with him before, "expressed the highest satisfaction," says his biographer, "at being introduced to the company of one whose air and countenance bespoke him fitted rather for the society of angels than the conversation of men." Upon the score of controversial offences, few men have ever had so little need to ask forgiveness.

When Mr. Fletcher offended his antagonists, it was not by any personalities, or the slightest breathing of a malicious spirit, but by the ironical manner in which he displayed the real nature of their monstrous doctrine. For his talents were of the quick mercurial kind; his fancy was always active, and he might have held no inconsiderable rank, both as a humorous and as an impassioned writer, if he had not confined himself wholly to devotional subjects. But his happy illustrations had the effect of provoking his opponents. Mr. Wesley also, by the unanswerable manner in which he treated the Calvinistic question, drew upon himself the fierce resentment of a host of enemies. They were confounded, but they would not be convinced; and they assailed him with a degree of rancorous hatred, which, even in theological controversy, has never been exceeded. "He was as weak as he was vicious," they said: "he was like a monkey, an eel, or a squirrel, perpetually twisting and twining all manner of ways. There was little probity, or common honesty, discoverable in that man-that Arminian priest:-he was incapable of appreciating real merit; and his blasphemous productions were horror to the soul, and torture to the ear. And for his doctrine,-the cursed doctrine of free-will-it was the most God-dishonouring and soul-distressing doctrine of the day; it was one of the prominent features of the Beast; it was the enemy of God, and the offspring of the wicked one; the insolent brat of hell. Arminianism was the spiritual pestilence which had given the Protestant churches the plague: like a mortal scorpion, it carries a sting

in its tail, that affects with stupefaction, insensibility, and death, all whom it strikes."

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The unforgivable offence, which drew ley and his doctrine this sort of obloquy, with which volumes have been filled, was the sermon upon Free Grace, that had been the occasion of the breach with Whitefield. It is one of the most able and eloquent of all his discourses; a triumphant specimen of impassioned argument. "Call it by whatever name you please," said he, attacking the Calvinistic doctrine, "Election, Preterition, Predestination, or Reprobation, it comes to the same thing. The sense is plainly this: by virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned; it being impossible that any of the former should be damned, or that any of the latter should be saved." He proceeded to show, that it made all preaching vain, as needless to the elect, and useless to the reprobate; and, therefore, that it could not be a doctrine of God, because it makes void his ordinance: that it tended to produce spiritual pride in some, absolute despair in others, and to destroy our zeal for good works: that it made revelation contradictory and useless; and that it was full of blasphemy,"of such blasphemy," said he, "as I should dread to mention, but that the honour of our gracious God, and the cause of truth, will not suffer me to be silent. In the cause of God," he pursues," and from a sincere concern for the glory of his great name, I will mention a few of the horrible blasphemies contained in this horrible doctrine. But first I must warn every one of you that hears, as ye will answer it at the great day, not to charge me, as some have done, with blaspheming, because I mention the blasphemy of others. And the more you are grieved with them that do thus blaspheme, see that ye confirm your love towards them' the more, and that your heart's desire, and continual prayer to God, be, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!'

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"This premised, let it be observed, that this doctrine represents our blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, the

righteous, the only-begotten son of the Father, full of grace and truth,' as an hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, a man void of common sincerity. For it cannot be denied that he every where speaks as if he were willing that all men should be saved; therefore, to say he was not willing that all men should be saved, is to represent him as a mere hypocrite and dissembler. It cannot be denied, that the gracious words which came out of his mouth are full of invitations to all sinners; to say, then, He did not intend to save all sinners, is to represent him as a gross deceiver of the people. You cannot deny that he says, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden! If, then, you say He calls those that cannot come, those whom he knows to be unable to come, those whom he can make able to come, but will not, how is it possible to describe greater insincerity?— You represent him as mocking his helpless creatures, by offering what he never intends to give. You describe him as saying one thing and meaning another; as pretending the love which he had not. Him, in in whose mouth was no guile, you make full of deceit, void of common sincerity: then, especially when drawing nigh the city, he wept over it, and said, ⚫O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, and ye (ἠθέλησα καὶ ἐκ ἠθελήσατε). Now, if you say they would, but he would not, you represent him (which who could hear!) as weeping crocodile tears over the prey which he had doomed to destruction!

"Such blasphemy this, as, one would think, might make the ears of a Christian to tingle! But there is yet more behind; for, just as it honours the Son, so doth this doctrine honour the Father. It destroys all his attributes at once: it overturns both his justice, mercy, and truth. Yes, it represents the Most Holy God as worse than the devil; as more false, more cruel, and more unjust. More false, because the devil, liar as he is, hath never said he willeth all mankind to be saved: more unjust, because the devil cannot, if he would, be guilty of such injustice as

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