before, draw them irresistibly and infallibly from iniquity to repentance. Death shall unavoidably make an end of their indwelling sin; and to heaven they shall unavoidably go. On the other hand, let a Baxter and a Wesley astonish the world by their ministerial labours: Let them write, speak, and live in such a manner, as to stem the torrent of iniquity, and turn thousands to righteousness: With St. Paul let them take up their cross daily, and preach and pray, not only with tears, but with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power.' Let unwearied patience and matchless diligence carry them with increasing fortitude through all the persecutions, danger, and trials, which they meet with from the men of the world, and from false brethen: Let them hold on this wonderful way to their dying day Yet, if the indelible mark of unconditional reprobation to death is upon them, necessitating victorious wrath shall, in their last moments, if not before, make them necessarily turn from righteousness, and unavoidably draw back to perdition; so shall they be fitted for the lake of fire, the end, to which, if God Calvinistically passed them by, they were absolutely ordained through the predestiuated medium of remediless sin and final apostacy.

:

This is the true state of the case: To spend time in proving it, would be offering the judicious reader as great an insult, as if I detained him to prove that the North is opposed to the South. But what does Mr. Toplady say against this consequence, "If Calvinism is true, the reprobates shall be damned, do what they can?" He advances the following warm argument:

ARGUMENT I. (Page 55.)-" Can Mr. Wesley pro"duce a single instance of any one man, who did all "he could to be saved, and yet was lost? If he can, "let him tell us who that man was where he lived, "when he died, what he did, and how it came to pass "he laboured in vain.-If he cannot, let him either retract his consequences, or continue to be posted "for a shameless traducer."

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I answer: 1. To require Mr. Wesley to shew a man who did all he could, and yet was lost, is requiring him to prove that Calvinian reprobation is true; thing this, which he can no more do, than he can prove that God is false. Mr. Wesley never said that any man was damned after doing his best to be saved: He only says, that if Calvinism is true, the reprobates shall all be damned, though they should all do their best to be saved, till the efficacious decree of their absolute reprobation necessitates them to draw back and be damned.

2. As Mr. Toplady's bold request may impose upon his inattentive readers, I beg leave to point out its Mr. Wesley says, absurdity by a short illustration,

If there is a mountain of gold, it is heavier than a handful of feathers; and his consequence passes for true in England. But a gentleman who teaches Logic in mystic Geneva, thinks that it is absolutely false, and that Mr. Wesley's "forehead must be petrified, and quite impervious to a blush," for advancing it. Can Mr. Wesley, says he, show us a mountain of gold, which is really heavier than a handful of feathers? If he can, let him tell us what mountain it is, where it lies, in what latitude, how high it is, and who did ever ascend to the top of it. If he cannot, let him either retract his consequences, or continue to be posted for a shameless traducer.

Equally conclusive is Mr. Toplady's challenge! By such cogent arguments as these, thousands of professors are bound to the chariot-wheels of modern orthodoxy, and blindly follow the warm men, who 'drive as furiously' over a part of the body of scripture divinity, as the son of Nimshi did over the body of cursed Jezebel.

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SECTION II.

Calvinism upon its legs, or a full view of the arguments by which Mr. Toplady attempts to reconcile Calvinism with God's holiness;-a note upon a letter to an Arminian teacher.

SENSIBLE that Calvinism can never rank among the doctrines of holiness, if "the elect shall be saved, do what they will," and if the " reprobate shall be damned do what they can ;" Mr. Toplady tries to throw off, from his doctrines of grace, the deadly weight of Mr. Wesley's consequence. In order to this, he proves that Calvinism ensures the holiness of the elect, as the necessary means of their predestinated salvation: But he is too judicious to tell us that it ensures also the wickedness of the reprobate as the necessary means of their predestiuated damnation. To make us in love with his orthodoxy, he presents her to our view with one leg, on which she contrives to stand, by artfully leaning upon her faithful maid Logica Genevensis. Her other leg is prudently kept out of sight, so long as the trial about her holiness lasts. This deserves explanation.

The most distinguishing and fundamental doctrines of Calvinism are two; and therefore they may with propriety be called the legs of that doctrinal system. The FIRST of these fundamental doctrines is, the personal, unconditional, absolute predestination, or election, of some men to eternal life; and the SECOND is, the personal, unconditional, absolute predestination, or reprobation, of some men to eternal death. Nor can Mr. Toplady find fault with my making his doctrine of grace stand upon her legs, Calvinian Election and Calvinian Reprobation: For, supposing that our church speaks in her Seventeenth Article of Calvinian, Absolute Predestination to eternal life, he says himself in his Historic Proof, (page 574,) "The predestina"tion of some to life, asserted in the seventeenth "article, cannot be maintained without admitting the

"reprobation of some others to death, &c., and al "who have subscribed to the said article, are bound "in honour, conscience, and law to defend reproba.

Our opponents are greatly embarrassed about the doctrine of absolute, unconditional reprobation. Though in an happy moment, where candour prevailed over shame, Mr. Toplady stood up so boldly for Calvinian reprobation; the reader, as he goes on, will smile, when he sees the variegated wisdom with which that gentleman disguises, exculpates, or conceals, what he so rationally and so candidly grants here.

The truth is, that, as scriptural election is necessarily attended with an answerable reprobation; so absolute, Calvinian election unavoidably drags after it absolute, Calvinian reprobation;-a black reprobation this, which necessitates all who are personally written in the book of death to sin on, and to be damned. But some Calvinists are afraid to see this doctrine, and well they may, for it is horrible: Others are ashamed to acknowledge it; and not a few, for want of rational sight, obstinately deny that it is the main pillar of their gospel; and with the right leg of their system they unmercifully kick the left. Among the persons who are guilty of this absurd conduct, we may rank the author of A Letter to an Arminian Teacher: An imperfect copy of which appeared in the Gospel Magazine of August, 1775, under the following title, A Predestinarian's real thoughts of Election and Reprobation, &c. This writer is so inconsistent, as to attempt cutting off the left leg of Calvinism. He, at first, gives us reprobation. "The word reprobation," says he, "is never mentioned in all the scripture, [no more is the word predesti nation,] nor is the scriptural word reprobate ever mentioned as the continuance of election, or as [its] opposite." This is a great mistake, as appears from the two first passages quoted by this author, (Jer. vi. 30, and Rom. i. 28,) where reprobate silver is evidently opposed to choice silver, and where a reprobate mind is indubitably opposed to the mind which is after God's own heart-that is, to the mind which God approves and chooses to crown with evangelical praises and rewards. Our author goes on:

"There is no immediate connection between election to salvation, and reprobation to damnation." What an argument is this! Did we ever say that there is any immediate connection between two things which are as contrary as Christ and Belial? Oh! but we mean, that "they have no necessary dependance on each other." The question is not, whether they have a necessary dependance on each other; but, whether they have not a necessary opposition to each other; and that they have, is as clear as that light is opposed to dark. ness. "They proceed from very different causes." True: for election proceeded from free-grace, and Calvinian reprobation from freewrath. "The sole cause of election is God's free love, &c. The sole cause of damnation is only sin." Our author wants candour or attention. Had he argued like a candid logician, he would have said, "The sole cause of the reprobation which ends in unavoidable damnation, is only sin," but if he had fairly argued thus, he would

manda

bou ❝tion, were it only to keep the Seventeenth Article, "[or rather, the Calvinian sense which Mr. Toplady "fixes to that article,] upon its legs."

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have given up Calvinism, which stands or falls with absolute reprobation; and therefore he thought proper to substitute the word damnation for the word reprobation, which the argument absolutely requires. These tricks may pass in Geneva; but in England they appear inconsistent with fair reasoning. It is a common stratagem of the Calvinists to say, "Election depends upon God's love only, but damnation depends upon our sin only; break the thin shell of this sophism, and you will find this bitter kernel; God's distinguishing love elects some to unavoidable holiness and finished salvation; and his distinguishing wrath reprobates all the rest of mankind to remediless sin and eternal damnation. For, the moment the sin of reprobates is necessary, remediless, and ensured by the decree of the means, it follows that absolute reprobation to necessary remediless sin, is the same thing as absolute reprobation to eternal damnation; because such a damnation is the unavoidable consequence of remediless sin.

When the letter-writer has absurdly denied Calvinian reprobation, he insinuates, p. 5, that everlasting torments and being unavoidably damned, are not the necessary consequences of the decree of Calvinian election; "nor," says he, "can they be fairly deduced from the decree of reprobation." So, now, the secret is out! Our author. after denying reprobation, informs us that there is a Cavinian decree of reprobation. But if there be such a decree, why did he oppose it, p. 2? And if there is no such a decree, why does he mention it, A5; where he hints that ensured damnation cannot be fairly deduced from it? Now, if he, or any Calvinist in the world, can prove that, upon the Calvinian plan, among the thousands of Calvin's reprobates, who are yet in their mother's wombs, one of them can, any how, avoid finished damnation, I solemnly engage myself before the public, to get my Checks burnt, at Charing Cross, by the common hangman, on any day which Mr. Hill, Mr. Toplady, and Mr. M'Gowan will please to appoint. But if the Calvinists cannot do this, and if the Calvinian decree of reprobation ensures the necessary, remediless sin, and the unavoidable, finished damnation of one and all the reprobates of Calvin, born or unborn; Mr. M'Gowan, and Dr. Gill whom he quotes, insult common sense, when they intimate, that ensured damnation cannot be fairly deduced from the decree of reprobation. How much less candid are the letter-writer and Dr. Gill, than Mr. Toplady and Zanchius, who fairly tell us, (p. 75,) “The condemnation (that is, the damnation) of the reprobate is necessary

and irresistible!"

The letter-writer tells us, (p. 6,) “What ensures holiness, must ensure glory; election (that is, Calvinian election) doth so, and glory must follow." This is the right leg of Calvinism; let her stand upon the left leg, and you have this doctrine of grace: What ensures

remediless sin, must ensure damnation; Calvinian reprobation doth 80, and damnation must follow. I would as soon bow to Dagon, as to this doctrine of remediless sin and ensured wickedne