own free-will:-Or (3) by the jefts he paffes upon, or the indifference he betrays for, the convincing, comforting, affifting, and fanctifying influences of God's Holy Spirit.

ANTINOMIANISM is the religion of an Antinomian.

An ANTINOMIAN is a chriftian who is [anti nomon} AGAINST THE LAW of Chrift, as well as AGAINST THE LAW Of Mofes : He allows Chrift's law to be a rule of LIFE, but not a rule of JUDGMENT for believers, and thus he destroys that law at a stroke, as a law; it being evident that a rule, by the perfonal obfervance or non obfervance of which Christ's subjects can never be acquitted, or condemned, is not a law for them, Hence he afferts that chriftians hall no more be juftified before God by their perfonal obedience to the law of Chrift, than by their perfonat obedience to the ceremonial law of Mofes. Nay, he believes, that the best chridians perpetually break Christ's law; that no body ever kept it but Chrift himself; and that we fhall be justified or condemned before God in the great day, not as we fhall perfonally be found to have finally kept or finally broken Chrift's law; but, as God fhall be found to have before the foundation of the world arbitrarily laid, or not laid to our account, the merit of Chrift's keeping his own law, Thus, he hopes to ftand in the great day merely by what he calls Chrift's imputed righteousness;" excluding with abhorrence from our final juftification the evangelical worthiness of our own perfonal, fincere obedience of repentance and faith ;-a precious obedience this, which he calls dung, drofs, and filthy rags; just as if it was the infincere obedience of felf-righteous pride, and pharifaic hypocrify. Nevertheless, tho' he this excludes the evangelical, derived worthiness of the works of faith from our eternal juftification and falvation, HE DOES good works, if he is. [in other refpects] a good man. Nay, in this cafe, he piques himself to do them; thinking he is peculiarly obliged to make people believe, that, immoral as his fentiments are, they draw after them the greatest

bene

benevolence and the ftricteft morality: But Fulfome hows the contrary.

FULSOME reprefents a confiftent antinomian-that is, one who is fuch in practice, as well as in theory. He warmly efpoufes Zelotes's doctrine of finished falvation; believing that, before the foundation of the world, we were all Calvinistically, i. e. perfonally ordained to eternal life IN CHRIST, or to eternal death IN ADAM, without the leaft respect to our own works, that is, to our own tempers and conduct, Hence he draws this just inference: "If Chrift never died for me, and I am CALVINISTICALLY-reprobated, my "best endeavours to be finally juftified, and eter

nally faved, will never alter the decree of repro"bation, which was made against me from all eter"nity. On the other hand, if I am CALVINISTI"CALLY-elected, and if Chrift abfolutely fecured,

yea FINISHED my eternal falvation on the cross; no fins can ever blot my name out of the book of "life. God, in the day of his almighty power, will "irrefiftibly convert or reconvert my foul; and then, "the greater my crimes fhall have been, the more they will fet off divine mercy and power in forgiving and turning fuch a finner as me; and I fhall "only fing in heaven louder than lefs finners will "have caufe to do." Thus reafons Fulfome, and, like a wife man, he is determined, if he is an abfolute REPROBATE, to have what pleafure he can before God pulls him down to hell in the day of his power: Or, if he is an abfolute ELECT, he thinks it reasonable comfortably to wait for the day of God's power, in which day he fhall be irrefiftibly turned, and abfolutely fitted to fing louder in heaven the praises of CALVINISTICALLY-DISTINGUISHING love:-a love this, which [if the antinomian gofpel of the day be true] eternally juftifies the chief of finners, without any perfonal or inherent worthinefs.

INITIAL SALVATION is a phrafe which fometimes Occurs in thefe fheets. The plain reader is defired to underland by it, Salvation begun, or, an inferior Hate of acceptance and prefent Salvation: In this

ftate

ftate finners are actually faved from hell, admitted to a degree of favour, and graciously entrusted with one or more talents of grace, that is, of means, power, and ability to work out their own [eternal] Salvation, in due fubordination to God, who, confiftently with our liberty, aworks in us both to will and to do, according to the difpenfation of the heathens, jews, or chriftians, of his good pleasure.

By the ELECTION OF GRACE, underftand the free, and merely gratuitous choice, which God [AS A WISE AND SOVEREIGN BENEFACTOR] arbitrarily makes of this, that, or the other man, to bestow upon him one, two, or five talents of Free-grace.

Oppofed to this election, you have an ABSOLUTE REPROBATION, which does not draw damnation after it, but only rejection from a fuperior number of talents. In this fenfe God reprobated Enoch and David :—Enoch, with refpect to the peculiar bleffings of judaifm; and David, with regard to the ftill more peculiar bleffings of chriftianity. But altho' neither of them had a share in the election of God's MOST peculiar grace; that is, altho' neither was chofen and called to the bles fings of christianity; their lot was never caft with thofe imaginary " poor creatures," whom Calvin and his followers affirm to have been from all eternity reprobated with a reprobation, which infallibly draws eternal damnation after it. For Enoch and David made their election to the rewards of their difpenfations fure by the timely and voluntary obedience of faith. And fo might all those who obftinately bury

their talent or talents to the laft.

By FUTURE CONTINGENCIES, underftand thofe things, which will, or will not be done; as the free, unneceffitated will of man fhall chufe to do them or

not.

By SEMINAL EXISTENCE, understand the existence that we had in Adam's loins before Eve had conceived; or the kind of being, which the prince of Wales had in the loins of the King, before the Queen came to England.

THE SECOND PART

07 THE

SCRIPTURE SCALES.

SECTION

XIV.

Containing the Scripture-doctrine of the perseverance of the faints.

I

Promifed the Reader, that Zelotes and Honeftus should foon meet again, to fight their last battle; and that I may be as good as my word, I bring them a fecond time upon the ftage of controverfy. I have no pleasure in feeing them contend with each other; but I hope, that when they fhall have shot all their arrows, and spent all their strength, they will quietly fit down, and liften to propofals of reconciliation; They have had already many engagements, but they feem determined that this fhall be the fharpeft. Their challenge is about the doctrine of perfeverance. Zelotes afferts that the perfeverance of believers depends entirely upon God's almighty grace, which nothing can fruftrate; and that, of confequence, no believer can finally fall. Honeftus on the other hand maintains, that continuing in the faith depends chiefly, if not entirely, upon the believer's free-will; and that of confequence, final perfeverance is, partly, if not altogether, as uncertain as the fluctuations of the hu man heart. The reconciling truth lies between those two extremes, as appears from the following propofitions, in which I fum up the fcripture-doctrine of perfeverance.

1.God makes us glorious promifes to encourage us 10 perfevere.

God

2.Thofe promifes are neither compulfory nor abfo-. lute.

R

We

1. God on his part gives us his gracious help.

1. FREE-GRACE always does its parc.

1. Final perfeverance depends FIRST, on the final, | gracious concurrence of free-grace with free-will. 1.As free-grace has in all things the pre-eminence over free-will, we must lay much more ftrefs upon GOD's faithfulness, than upon OUR OWN. The fpoufe COMES out of the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved, and not upon herself.

The believer ftands upon two legs (if I may fo fpeak) GOD's faithfulness and HIS OWN. The one is always found, nor can he reft too much upon it, if he does but walk ftrait as a wise christian; and does not foolishly hop as an antinomian, who goes only upon his right leg; or as a pharifee, who moves entirely upon the left.

and he can again run the

2. We muft on our part faithfully ufe the help of God.

2 FREE-WILL DOES NOT always do its part.

2. Final perfeverance depends SECONDLY, on the final, faithful concurrence fofree-will with free-grace.

2. But to infer from thence, that the spouse is to be CARRIED by her Beloved every step of the way, is unfcriptural He gently DRAWS her, and the runs. He gives her his arm, and the leans. But far from DRAGGING her by main force, he bids her remember Lot's wife.

2. The believer's left leg (I mean HIS OWN faithfulness) is fubject to many humours, fores, and bad accidents; especially when he does not use it at all; or when he lays too much ftrefs upon it, to fave his other leg. If it is broken, he is already fallen; and if he is out of hell, he muft lean as much as he can upon his right leg, till the left begins to heal, way of God's command

2. To aim chiefly at being faithful in external works, means of grace, and forms of godliness, is the high

road