The First Part of A N EQUAL CHECK то Pharifaifm and Antinomianifm, CONTAINING 1. An HISTORICAL ESSAY on the danger of parting II. Salvation by the covenant of grace, A DISCOURSE III. A SCRIPTURAL ESSAY on the astonishing re- IV. An ESSAY ON TRUTH, Or, A rational Vindica. The armour of righteousness on the right hand, and on the left, 2 Cor. vi. 7. By the Author of the CHECKS to ANTINOMIANISM. SHREWSBURY; Printed by J. EDDOWES: and fold at the Foundery, and by J. BUCKLAND, in Pater-nofter-Row, London; by T. MILLS [ Price Two Shillings. ] SOON WILL BE PUBLISHED, Zelotes and Honeftus reconciled: O R, The Second Part of an Equal Check to Pharifaism and Antinomianism : BEING BOTH SCRIPTURE-SCALES To weigh the gold of gofpel-truth: AND A DOCTRINAL CONCORDANCE To reconcile and balance a multitude of oppofite fcriptures, to prove the gofpel-marriage of Free.grace and Free-will, and reftore primitive harmony to the Gofpel of the day. Si non est Dei gratia, quomodo falvat mundum? Si non eft liberum arbitrium, quomodo judicat mundum. Aug: Ep. 46. 1. PREFACE. Τ HE firft piece of this Check was defigned for a preface to the Difcourfe that follows it; but as it fwelled far beyond my intention, I prefent it to the Reader under the name of An hiftorical Effay; which makes way for the tracts that follow. II. With refpect to the Discourse, I must mention what engages me to publish it. In 1771 I faw the propofitions called the Minutes. Their author invited me to "review the whole affair." I did fo; and foon found, that I had "leaned too much towards Calvinifm," which, after mature confideration, appeared to me exactly to coincide with Speculative antinomianifm; and the fame year I publicly acknowledged my error in these words: "But whence fprings this almoft general antino"mianifm of our congregations? Shall I conceal the "fore because it fefters in my own breaft? Shall I be partial? No in the name of Him, who is no refpecter of perfons, I will confefs MY fin, and that "of many of my brethren, &c. Is not the antino"mianifm of hearers fomented by that of preachers? "Does it not become us to take the greatest part of "the blame upon ourselves, according to the old "adage, Like prieft like people ?-Is it furprifing that "fome of us thould have an antinomian audience? "Do we not make or keep it fo? When did we preach fuch a practical fermon, as that of our Lord on the mount? or write fuch clofe letters, as the epiftles of St, John?" Second Check, p. 64, and 65, to the end of the paragraph. When I had thus openly confeffed, that I was involved in the guilt of many of my brethren, and that I had fo leaned towards Speculative, as not to have made a proper ftand against practical antinomianifm; who could have thought, that one of my moft formi dable dable opponents would have attempted to fcreen his mistakes, behind fome paffages of a manufcript fermon, which I preached twelve years ago; and of which, by fome means or other, he has got a copy? I am very far however from recanting that old difcourfe. I ftill think, the doctrine it contains excellent in the main, and very proper to be enforced [tho' in a more guarded manner] in a congregation of hearers violently prejudiced against the first gospel-axiom. Therefore, out of regard for the grand, leading truth of chriftianity, and in compliance with Mr. H—ll's earneft intreaty, [Fin. Stroke, p. 45,] I fend my fermon into the world, upon the following reasonable conditions: (1) That I fhall be allowed to publish it, as I preached it a year ago in my church; namely, with additions in brackets, to make it at once a fuller check to pharifaifm, and a finishing check to antinomianism ; (2) That the largest addition fhall be in favour of free grace: (3) That no body fhall accufe me of forgery, for thus adding my prefent light to that which I had formerly; and for thus bringing out of my little treasure of experience things new and old: (4) That the prefs fhall not groan with the charge of difingenuity, if I throw into notes fome unguarded expreffions, which I formerly used without fcruple, and which my more enlightened confcience does not fuffer me to ufe at prefent: (5) That my opponent's call to print my fermon, will procure me the pardon of the public, for prefenting them with a plain, blunt difcourfe, compofed for an audience chiefly made up of colliers and ruftics: And lastly, that as I understand english a little better than I did twelve years ago, I fhall be permitted to rectify a few french idioms, which I find in my old manufcript; and to connect my thoughts a little more like an Englishman, where I can do it without the leaft mifreprefentation of the fenfe. If thefe conditions appear unreasonable to those, who will have heaven itself without any condition, I abolish the diftinction between my old fermon, and the additions that guard or ftrengthen it; and refer ring the reader to the title page, I publish my difcourfe on Rom. xi. 5, 6, as a guarded fermon, delivered in my church on Sunday April the 18th, &c. 1773, exactly eleven years after I had preached upon the fame text a fermon useful upon the whole, but in fome places unguarded, and deficient with refpect to the variety of arguments and motives, by which the capital doctrines of free grace and gospel obedience ought to be enforced. Ill. With regard to the SCRIPTURAL ESSAY upon the rewardableness, or evangelical worthiness of works, I shall just observe, that it attacks the grand mistake of the Solifidians, countenanced by three or four words of my old fermon. I pour a flood of feriptures upon it; and after receiving the fire of my objector, I return it in a variety of fcriptural and rational anfwers, about the folidity of which the public muft decide. IV. The ESSAY ON TRUTH Will, I hope, reconcile judicious moralifts to the doctrine of falvation by faith, and confiderate folifidians to the doctrine of falvation by the works of faith; reafon and fcripture concurring to fhow the conftant dependance of works upon faith; and the wonderful agreement of the doctrine of present falvation by TRUE faith, with the doctrine of eternal falvation by GOOD works. I hope, that I do not diffent, in my obfervations upon faith, either from our Church, or approved gofpel-minifters. In their highest definitions of that grace, they confider it only according to the fulness of the chriflian difpenfation; but my fubject has obliged me to confider it alfo according to the difpenfations of John the Baptift, Mofes, and Noah. Believers, under thefe inferior difpenfations, have not always affurance; nor is the affurance they fometimes have fo bright as that of adult christians, Mat. xi. 11. But undoubtedly affurance is infeparably connected with the faith of the chriftian difpenfation, which was not fully opened, till My old fermon was preached on Sunday April 18, 1762, and not 1764, as Mr. H, thro' fome mistake informs the public. |