PREFACE.

Why the following Tract is called, "The Last Check to Antinomianism,” and “ A Polemical Essay.”Mr. Hill's Creed for Perfectionists.—A short Account of the Manner in which Souls are purged from the Remains of Sin, according to the Doctrine of the Heathens, the Romanists, and Calvinists.-The Purgatory recommended by the Church of England, and vindicated in this Book, is Christ's Blood, and a soul-purifying Faith.

I CALL the following Essay, The Last Check to Antinomianism; because it properly continues and closes the preceding Checks. When a late Fellow of Clare-hall, Cambridge, attacked the doctrine of Sincere Obedience, which I defend in the Checks, he said, with great truth, "Sincere obedience, as a condition, will lead you unavoidably up to perfect obedience." What he urged as an argument against our views of the gospel, is one of the reasons by which we defend them, and perhaps the strongest of all: For our doctrine leads us as naturally to holiness and perfect obedience, as that of our opponent does to sin and imperfections. If the streams of Mr. Hill's doctrine never stop, till they have carried men into a sea of indwelling sin, where he leaves them to struggle with waves of immorality, or with billows of corruption, all the days of their life: it is evident that our doctrine, which is the very reverse of his, must take us to a sea of indwelling holiness, where we calmly outride all the storms, which Satan raised to destroy Job's perfection; and where all our pursuing corruptions are as much destroyed as the Egyptians were in the Red Sea.

'Truth, like Moses's rod, is all of a piece; and so is the Serpent, which Truth devours. Look at the tail of the error which we attack; and you will see the venomous, mortal sting of indwelling sin. Consider the but end of the rod, with which we defend ourselves against that smooth, yet biting error, and you will find the pearl of great price, the invaluable diamond of Christian Perfection. In the very nature of things, therefore, our long controversial warfare must end in a close engagement for the preservation of the sting, or for the recovery of the jewel. If our adversaries can save indwelling sin, the deadly sting, Antinomianism has won the day: But if we can rescue Christian perfection, the precious jewel, then will perfect Christianity again dare to shew herself, without being attacked as a dangerous monster; or scoffed at as the base offspring of self-ignorance and Pharisaic pride. This remark on the Autinomianism of our opporents, is founded upon the following arguments :

1. All those who represent Christian believers as lawless, First, By denying that Christ's law is a rule of judgment, which absolutely requires our own personal obedience: Secondly, By representing this law as a mere rule of life; and, Thirdly, By insinuating that this rule of life is, after all, absolutely impracticable; that a personal fulfilment of it is not expected from any believer; that there never was a Christian who lived one day without breaking it; and that believers shall be eternally saved, merely because Christ kept if for them-All those, I say, who hold this Solifidiau doctrine concerning Christ's law, are Christian Antinomians with a witness; that is, they are lawless Christians in principle, if not in practice. Now, all those who attack the doctrine of constant obedience, and Christian perfection, which we maintain, are under this three-fold error concerning Christ's law; and therefore they are all Antinomians, that is, Christless, lawless in principle, though many of them, we are persuaded, are not so in practice; the fear of God causing in them a happy inconsistency, between their legal conduct, and their lawless tenets.