things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And when he had just run his race out, he wrote to Timothy, "I have finished my course: henceforth there is laid up for me, (as for a conqueror,) a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me at that day," the great day of retribution. As for St, John, when he was perfected in love, we find him as mercenary" as St. Paul; for he writes to the elect lady, and to her believing children, "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward." 66 10. When I read such scriptures, I wonder at those who are so wrapt up in the pernicious nation, that we ought not to work for a life of glory; as to overlook even the crown of life, with which God will reward those who are faithful unto death. And I am astonished at the remains of my own unbelief, which prevent my being always ravish ed with admiration at the thought of the rewards offered to fire my soul into seraphic obedience. An idle country-fellow, who runs at a wake for a wretched prize, labours harder in his sportive race than, I fear, I do yet in some of my prayers and sermons. A sportsman, for the pitiful honour of coming in at the death of a fox, toils more than most professors do in the pursuit of their corruptions. How ought confusion to cover our faces! Let those that refine the gospel, glory in their shame let each of them say, "I thank thee, O God, that I am not like a Papist, or like that Arminian, who looks at the rewards which thou hast promised; I deny myself, and take up my cross, without thinking of the joy and rewards set before me, &c." For my part, I desire to humble myself before God, for having so long overlooked the exceeding great reward, and the crown of life, promised to them that obey him and my thoughts shall be expressed in such words as these. : "Gracious Lord, if he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall have a prophet's reward: if our light affliction, when it is patiently endured, worked for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and if thou hast said, Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again [from man,] and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; if thou animatest those, who are persecuted for righteteousness' sake, by this promissory exhortation, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven :" Nay, if a cup of cold water only, given in thy name, shall in no wise lose its reward; and if the least of thy rewards is a smile of approbation; let me be ready to go round the world, shouldest thou call me to it, that I may obtai such a recompence." "Since thou hast so closely connected holiness and happiness, my duty and thy favours; let no man beguile me of my reward by a voluntary humility. And whatsoever my hand findeth to do, help me to do it with my might; not only lest I lose my reward, but lest I have not a full reward; lest I lose a beam of the light of thy countenance, or a degree of that peculiar likeness and nearness to thee, with which thou wilt recompence those, who excel in virtue. So shall I equally avoid the delusion of the Pharisees, who expect heaven through their faithless works: and the error of the Antinomians, who hope to enter into thy glory without the passport of the works of faith." "And now, O Lord, if thy servant has found favour in thy sight, permit me to urge another request; so far as thy wisdom, and the laws, by which thy free grace works upon free agents, will permit: incline the minds of Papists and Protestants to receive the truth as it is in Jesus. Let not especially this plain testimony borne to the many great promises which thou hast made, and to the astonishing rewards which thou offerest them that work righteousness, be rejected by my Calvinist brethren. Keep them from fighting against thy goodness, and despising their own mercies, under pretence of fighting against "Arminian Errors," and despising "Pelagian Checks to the Gospel." And make them sensible, that it is absurd, to decry in word the Pope's pretensions to infallibity, if by an obstinate refusal to "review the whole affair," and to weigh their supposed orthodoxy in the balances of reason and revelation, they in fact pretend to be infallible themselves; and thus, instead of one Catholic Pontiff, set up ten thonsand Protestant Popes." Thou knowest, Lord, that many of them love thee; and that, though they disgrace thy gospel by their doctrinal peculiarities, they adorn it by their godly conversation. O endue them with more love to their remonstrant brethren! Give them and me that charity which behaveth not itself unseemly, which rejoiceth not in a favourite error, but rejoiceth in the truth even when it is ad. vanced by our opponents. Thou seest, that if they decry true holiness and good works as "dung and dross," it is chiefly for fear thy glory should be obscured by our obedience. Error transformed into an angel of light has deceived them, and they think to do thee service by propagating the deception. O gracious God, pardon them this wrong. They do it ignorantly in unbelief; therefore seal not up their mistake with the seal of thy wrath: Let them yet know the truth, and let the truth enlarge their hearts, and make them free from the notion, that thou art not loving to every man during the day of salvation: and that there is neither mercy nor Saviour for most of their neighbours, even during the accepted time." "Above all, Lord, if they cannot defend their mistakes either by argument or scripture; give them more wisdom, than to expose any longer the Protestant religion, which they think to defend; and more piety, than to make the men of the world abhor thy gospel, and blaspheme thy name, as freethinkers are daily tempted to do, when they see, that those, who pretend to "exalt thee" mos', are of all Protestants the most ready to disarm thy gospel of its sanctions; to turn thy judicial sentences into frivolous prescriptions; to overlook the dictates of reason, and good nature; and to make the press groan under illogical assertions, and personal abuse !" "Let thy servant speak once more: Thou knowest, O Lord, that thy power being my helper, I would choose to die rather than wilfully to depreciate that grace, that free grace of thine, which has so long kept me out of hell, and daily gives me sweet foretastes of heaven. And now, Lord, let not readers of a Pharisaic turn, mistake what I have advan ced in honour of the works of faith, and by that means build themselves up in their selfrighteous delusion, and destructive contempt of thy merits: Help them to consider, that if our works are rewardable, it is because thy free grace makes them so; thy Father having mercifully accepted our persons for thy sake, thy holy Spirit having gently helped our infirmities, thy precious blood having fully atoned for our sins and imperfections, thy incessant intercession still keeping the way to the throne of grace open for us, and our poor performances. Suffer not one of the sons of virtuous pride, into whose hands these sheets may fall, to forget that thou hast annexed the reward of the inheritance to the assemblage of the works of faith, or to patient continuance in well-doing, and not to one or two splendid works, done just to serve wordly turn, or to bribe a clamorous conscience: And enable them so to feel the need of thy pardon for past transgressions and of thy power for future obedience, that as the chased hart panteth after the water-brooks, so their awakened souls may long after Christ, in whom the penitent find inexhaustible springs of righteousness and strength; and to whom, with thee, and thy eternal Spirit, be for ever ascribed praise, honour, and glory, both in heaven and upon earth ;— praise, for the wonders of general redemp. tion, and for the innumerable displays of thy free-grace unstained by free wrath;-honour, for bestowing the gracious reward of an heavenly salvation upon all believers, that make their election sure by patient continuance in well-doing ;—and glory for inflicting just punishment upon all that neglect so great salvation, and to the end of the accepted time dar а Madeley, March 11th, 1774. YESTERDAY a friend lent me Mr. Baxter's Confession of Faith, printed in London, 1655. The third part of this valuable book extends through above 140 large pages, and the title of that long section runs thus: The testimony of reformed divines ascribing as much to WORKS as I and many of them delivering the same doctrine. He produces a hundred witnesses, some of whom are collective bodies, such as the Assembly-Divines, the compilers of the Homilies of the Church of England, and even the Synod of Dort. As the Antinomian spirit which flamed against Baxter's works in the last century, will probably sparkle against the preceding Essay, I beg leave to shelter behind that great man, and a few of his numerous quotations. I shall cite only Baxter's page, to which I refer those who desire to see the original of his Latin quotations, together with the books, chapters, and pages of the various authors. Page 322, he quotes the following words from Bishop Davenant, "As no man receiv eth that general justification which discharges from the guilt of all foregoing sins, but on the concurrence of repentance, faith, a purpose of a new life, and other actions of the same kind; so no man retaineth a state free from guilt in respect of following sins, but by means of the same actions of believing in God, calling on God, mortifying the flesh, daily repenting and sorrowing for sins daily committed. The reason why all these are required on our part, is this: Because these cannot be still absent, but their opposites will be present, which are contrary to the nature of a justified man.-As therefore to the conservation of natural life it is necessarily required, that a man carefully avoid fire, water, precipices, poisons, and other things destructive to the health of the body; so to the conserving of spiritual life, it is necessarily required that a man avoid incredulity, impenitency, and other things that are de structive and contrary to the salvation of souls; which cannot be avoided unless the opposite and contrary actions be exercised. And these actions do not conserve the life of grace properly and of themselves, by touching the very effect of conservation, but improperly and by accident, by excluding and removing the cause of destruction." Page 324, Baxter produces these words of the same pious bishop, "We do therefore fight against, not the bare name of merit, in a harmless sense frequently used of old by the fathers, but the proud and false opinion of merit of condignity, brought lately by the Papists into the church of God." And again, 325, "The works of the regenerate have an ordination to the rewards of this life and that to come. 1. Because God hath freely promised (according to the good pleasure of his will) the rewards of this life and that to come, to the good works of the faithful and regenerate, 1 Tim. iv. 8. Matt. xx. 8." Page 328, he quotes the following passage from Dr. Twiss, "6 It lieth on all elect to seek salvation, not only by faith, but by works also, in that without doubt salvation is to be given by way of reward, whereby God will reward not only our faith, but also our good works." Page 330 and 331, he quotes Melancthon thus, "New obedience is necessary by necessity of order of the cause and effect, also by necessity of duty or command. also by necessity of retaining faith, and avoiding punishments temporal and eternal."- "Cordatus stirreth up against me the city, and also the neigh bour countries, and also the court itself, because in explaining the controversy of justification, I said, that new obedience is necessary to salvation." Page 360, 361, he quotes these words of Zanchius: Works are necessary: 1. To justify our faith [coram Deo] before God, &c. 2. They are necessary to the obtaining eternal life, &c. 3. They are necessary to inherit justification as CAUSES, &c. 4. They are profitable to conserve and increase faith: also to PRO-MERIT of God and obtain many good things, both spiritual and corporal, both in this life and in another." The words of Zanchius are, "Opera utilia sunt, &c. ad multa bona tum spiritualia tum corporalia, tum in hac vita, tum in alia a Deo PROMERENDA et obtinenda." Zanch. Tom. 8, p. 787. loc: de just fidei. How much more tenderly did Mr. Wesley speak of merit than the orthodox Zanchius, whom Mr. Toplady has lately rendered famous among us! I hope, that if this gentleman ever opens his favourite book on the above-quoted page, he will drop his prejudices, and confess that his dear, Zanchius himself nobly contends for the "Wesleyan heresy." I Page 462, Baxter concludes his book by praying for those who had misrepresented him to the world, and obliged him to spend so much time in vindicating his doctrine. most heartily join him in his last paragraph of his prayer, in which I beg the reader would join us both. "The Lord illuminate and send forth some messenger, that may acquaint the churches with that true, middle, reconciling method of theological verities, which must be the means of healing our divisions. Let men be raised of greater sufficiency for this work, and of such blessed accomplish ments as shall be fit to cope with the power of prejudice; and let the fury of blind contradiction be so calmed, that Truth may have opportunity to do its work." End of the Appendix to the Scriptural Essay. AN ESSAY ON TRUTH: BEING A RATIONAL VINDICATION Of the doctrine of salvation by Faith. EXCEEDINGLY sorry should I be, if the testimony which I have borne to the necessity of good works, caused any of my readers to do the worst of bad works, that is, to neglect believing, and to depend upon some of the external, faithless performances, which conceited pharisees call "good works ;" and by which they absurdly think to make amends for their sins, to purchase the divine favour, to set aside God's mercy, and to supersede Christ's atoning blood. Therefore, lest some unwary souls, going from one extreme to the other, should so unfortunately avoid Antino. mianism, as to run upon the rocks, which are rendered famous by the destruction of the pharisees, I shall once more vindicate the fundamental, anti-pharisaic doctrine of salvation by faith: I say once more, because I have already done it in my guarded sermon and to the Scriptures, Articles, and Arguments produced in that piece, I shall now add rational, and yet scriptural observations, which, together with appeals to matter of fact, will, I hope, soften the prejudices of judicious moralists against the doctrine of faith, and reconcile considerate Solifidians to the doctrine of works. In order to this, I desire in general to prove that true faith is the only plant, which can possibly bear good works: That it loses its operative nature, and dies, when it produces them not : And that it as much surpasses good works in importance, as the motion of the heart does all other bodily motions. Enquire we first into the nature and ground of saving faith. himself for me:" For if I did, I should damn almost all mankind for 4000 years. To avoid putting on the black mark of DAMNATION upon any man, that in any nation fears God and works righteousness; I would chuse to say, that "saving faith is believing the saving truth with the heart unto internal, and (as we have opportunity) unto external righteousness, according to our light and dispensation." To St. Paul's words, Rom. x. 10, 1 add the epithets internal and external, in order to exclude according to 1 John iii. 7, 8, the filthy imputation under which fallen believers may, if we credit the Antinomians, commit internal and external adultery, mental and bodily murder, without the least fear of endangering their interest in God's favour, and their inadmissible title to a throne of glory. But, "How is faith the gift of God?"Some persons think, that faith is as much out of our power, as the lightning that shoots from a distant cloud! They suppose that God drives sinners to the fountain of Christ's blood, as irresistibly as the infernal Legion drove the herd of swine into the sea of Gali lee; and that a man is as passive in the first act of faith, as Jonah was in the act of the fish, which cast him upon the shore. Hence, the plea of many, who lay fast hold on the horns of the Devil's altar, UNBELIEF, and cry out, "We can no more believe, than we can make a world." its tantamount, believing, is a work which none but God can manage. 5. It supposes, that when Christ marvelled at the unbelief of the Jews, he shews as little wisdom as I should, were I to marvel at a man for not creating three worlds as quickly as a believer can say the three creeds.-And lastly, that when Christ fixes our damnation upon unbelief (see Mark xvi. 16, and John iii. 18.) he acts far more tyrannically than the king would do, if he issued out a proclamation informing all his subjects, that whosoever should not by such a time, raise a new Island within the British seas, shall be infallibly put to the most painful death. Having thus exposed the erroneous sense, in which some people suppose, that faith is the gift of God, I beg leave to mention in what sense it appears to me to be so.-Believing is the gift of the God of GRACE, as breathing, moving, and eating, are the gifts of the God of NATURE. He gives me lungs and air, that I may move; he bestows upon me food and a mouth, that I may eat; and when I have no stomach he gives me common sense to see, I must die, or force myself to take some nourishment or some medicine; but he neither breathes, moves, nor eats for me; nay, when I think proper, I can accelerate my breathing, motion, and eating: and if I please I may even fast, lie down, or hang myself, and by that means put an end to my eating, moving, and breathing. Again, Faith is the gift of God to believers, as sight is to you. The Parent of good freely gives you the light of the sun, and organs proper to receive it; He places you in a world where that light visits you daily; He apprises you, that sight is conducive to your safety, pleasure, and profit; and every thing around you bids you use your eyes and see; nevertheless, you may not only drop your curtains, and extinguish your candle, but close your eyes also. This is exactly the case with regard to faith. Free grace removes (in part) the total blindness which Adam's fall brought upon us: freegrace gently sends us some beams of truth, which is the light of the Sun of Righteousness; it disposes the eyes of our understand But this is an absurd plea for several reasons: 1. It supposes, that when God commands all men every where to repent, and to believe the gospel, he commands them to do what is as impossible to them as the making of a new world. 2. It supposes that the terms of the covenant of grace are much harder than the terms of the covenant of works. For the old covenant required only perfect human obedience: but the new covenant requires of us the work of an Almighty God, i. e, believing; a work this, which upon the scheme I oppose, is as impossible to us as the creation of a world.-3. It supposes, that the promise of salvation being suspended upon believing, a thing as impracticable to us as the making of a new world, we shall as infallibly be damned, if God does not being to see those beams; it excites us various lieve in, or for us, as we should be, if we were to make a world on pain of damnation. 4. It supposes, that believing is a work, which belongs to God alone: for no man in his senses can doubt but creating a world, or When the Church of England and Mr. Wesley, give us particular definitions of faith, it is plain, that they consider it according to the christian dispensation, the privileges of which must be principally insisted upon among Christians; and that our church and Mr. Wesley guard faith against Antinomianism, is evident from their maintaining, as well as St. Paul, that by bad works we lose a good conscience, and make ship. wreck of the faith. ways to welcome them: it blesses us with many, perhaps with all the means of faith, such as opportunities to hear, read, enquire; and power to consider, assent, consent, resolve, and re-resolve to believe the truth. But, after all, believing is as much our own act as seeing; we may, in general do, suspend, or omit the act of faith; especially when that act is not yet become habitual, and when the glaring light that sometimes accompanies the revelation of the truth is abated. Nay, we may imitate Pharaoh, Judas, and all reprobates. We may be so averse from the light which enlightens every man that comes into the world; we may so dread it because our works are evil, as to exemplify, like the Pharisees, such awful declarations as these: "Their eyes have they closed, lest they should see, &c.-Wherefore God gave them up to a reprobate wind, and they were blinded." Two things have chiefly given room to our mistakes, respecting the strange impossibility of believing; the first is our confounding the truths, which characterize the several gospel dispensations. We see, for example, that a poor besotted drunkard, an over-reaching, greedy tradesman, a rich sceptical epicure, and a proud ambitious courtier, have no more taste for the gospel of Christ, than a horse and a mule have for the high-seasoned dishes that crown a royal table. An immense gulph is fixed between them, and the Christian faith. In their present state they can no more believe in Christ, than an unborn infant can become a man without passing through infancy and youth. But although they cannot yet believe in Christ, may they not believe in God according to the import of our Lord's words, Ye believe in GOD, believe also IN ME? If the Pharisees COULD NOT believe IN CHRIST, it was not because God never gave them a power equal to that which created the world; but because they were practical Atheists, who actually rejected the morning light of the Jewish dispensation, and by that means absolutely unfitted themselves for the meridian light of the Christian dispensation. The second cause of our mistake about the impossibility of believing now, is the confounding weak with strong faith. But had Abra ham no faith in God's promise, till Isaac was born? Was Sarah a damnable unbeliever, till she felt the long-expected fruit of her womb stir there? Had the woman of Canaan no faith till our Lord granted her request, and cried out, “O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt?" Was the Centurion an Infidel, till Christ marvelled at his faith, and declared he had not found such faith no not in Israel? And had the Apostles no faith in the promise of the Father, till their heads were crowned with celestial fire? Can you from Genesis to Revelation find one single instance of a soul willing to believe, and absolutely unable to do it? From these two Scriptures, "Lord, increase our faith:-Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief," can you justly infer, that the praying disciples, and the distressed father, had no power to believe? Do not their words evidence just the contrary? That we cannot believe, any more than we can eat without the help of God, is what we are all agreed upon; but does this, in the least prove, that the help by which we believe, is as far out of the reach of willing souls, as the power to make a world? 66 Such Scriptures as these, "unto you it is given to believe."—"A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven." "No man can come unto me, except the Father draw him."- Every good gift, (and of course that of faith) cometh from the Father of lights."-Such Scriptures, I say, secure indeed the honour of free-grace, but do not destroy the power of free-agency. To us that freely believe in a holy, righteous God, it is given freely to believe in a gracious bleeding Saviour; because the sick alone have need of a Physician; and none but those that believe in God, can see the need of an ADVOCATE with him: but ought we from thence to conclude, that our unbelieving neighbours are necessarily debarred from believing in God? When our Lord said to the unbeliev, ing Jews, that they COULD NOT believe in him, did he not speak of an impotency of their own making? I ask it again, if they obstinately resisted the light of their inferior dis pensation; if they were none of Christ's Jewish sheep, how could they be Christian sheep? If an obstinate boy sets himself against learning the letters, how can he ever learn to read? If a stubborn Jew stiffly opposes the law of Moses, how can he submit to the law of Christ? Is it not strange that some good people should leap into reprobation, rather then admit so obvious a solution of this little difficulty! From the above-mentioned texts we have then no more reason to infer, that God forces believers to believe, or that he believes for them, than to conclude that God constrains diligent tradesmen to get money, or gets it for them, because it is said, “We are not sufficient to THINK ANY thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,-who GIVES US ALL things richly to enjoy."-Remember the Lord thy God, for it is HE that GIVETH THEE power to get wealth." From the whole I conclude, that, so long as the accepted time, and the day of salvation continue, all sinners who have not yet finally hardened themselves, may day and night (through the help and power of the general light of Christ's saving grace, mentioned John i. 9. and Tit. ii. 11.) receive some truth belonging to the everlasting gospel; though it should be only this: "There is a God who will call us to an account for our sins, and who spares us that we may break them off by repentance." And their cordial believing of this truth, will make way for their receiving the higher truths, that stand between them and the top of the mysterious ladder of truth, I grant it is impossible that they should leap at once to the middle, much less to the highest round of that ladder; but if the foot of it is upon earth, in the very nature of things, the lowest step is within their reach, and by laying |