sword. With it I open the mysteries of election and reprobation; and with it I attempt to cut the Gordian (should I not say the Calvinian and Pelagian?) knot. How far I have succeeded is yours to decide.

If these general observations, O ye true Protestants, make you cast a favourable look upon my Scales; and if, after a close trial, you find that they contain the reconciling truth, and the ONE complete Gospel of Christ, rent by Zelotes and Honestus to make the Two partial gospels of the day; let me entreat you to show what you are, by boldly stand ing up for reason and Scripture, that is, for true Protestantism. Equally enter your protest against the Antinomian innovations of Zelotes, and the Pharisaic mistakes of Honestus. These two champions have indee their thousands, and tens of thousands at their feet; and they may unit their adverse forces to oppose you, as Jews and Gentiles did to oppos the Prince of Peace. But resist them with "the armour of righteous ness on the right hand and on the left," and you will in time make ther friends to each other and to yourselves; I say in time, because whe peaceful men rush between fierce combatants in order to part then they at first get nothing but blows. The confusion for a time increases and idle spectators, who have not love and courage enough to rush int the danger, and to stop the mischief, say that the peace makers only ac fuel to the fire of discord. Thus are the courageous sons of peac "hated of all men" but of true Protestants, for treading in the steps the Divine Reconciler, whom the two rivals, Herod and Pilate, agree to set at naught-whom Jews and Gentiles concurred to crucify, inv terate enemies as they were to each other! He died, the loving Reco ciler-he died! but by his death "he slew the enmity-broke down th middle wall of partition-of twain made one new man; so making peace between Herod and Pilate, between Jews and Gentiles. And so w you, honoured brethren, between Zelotes and Honestus, between t Calvinists and the Pelagians, between the Solifidians and the moralist if you lovingly and steadily try to reconcile them. You may indeed "numbered among transgressors" for attempting it. Your reputati may even die between that of the fool and of the knave-that of t enthusiast and of the felon: but be not afraid. Truth and the Cru fied are on your side. God will raise you secret friends. A Joseph Nicodemus, will take down "the hand writing that is against you." Mary and a Salome will embalm your name; and if it be buried in of vion and reproach, yet it will rise again the third day.

If God is for you, fear not then what man can say of you, or even to you. Smile at Antinomian preterition: triumph in Pharisaic rep bation and when you are reviled for truth's sake, like blunt, resolu loving Stephen, kneel down, and pray that the sin of your mistak opposers may not be laid to their charge. O for the Protestant sp which animated confessors of old, carried martyrs singing to the sta and there helped them to clap their hands in the flames kindled by implacable abettors of error! O for a Shadrach's resolution! The ri glittering image towers toward heaven, and vies with the meridian s Nebuchadnezzar, the monarch of the kings of the earth, points at burning fiery furnace. The princes, governors, captains, judges, co sellors, sheriffs, and rulers of provinces, in all their dazzling magi cence, increase the glory of his terror. The sound of the cornet, fl

harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, recommends the pompous delusion: the enthusiastic multitudes are fired into universal applause. In Nebuchadnezzar's sense of the word, they are all orthodox; they all believe the Gospel of the day, "Great is the Diana of the Babylonians." "All people, nations, and languages, fall down" before her. But the day is not lost: Shadrach has not yet bowed the knee to Baal: nor have his two friends yet deserted him. "What! three!" Yes, three only. Nor are they unequally matched; one Shadrach against all people! One Meshach against all nations! One Abednego against all languages! One Luther, one Protestant against all the world! O ye iron pillars of truth-ye true Protestants of the day, my exulting soul meets you in the plain of Dura. Next to Him who witnessed alone a good confession before Pontius Pilate, of you I learn to protest against triumphant error. Truth and a furnace for us! The truth-the whole truth as it is in Jesus, and a burning fiery furnace for true Protestants!

And shall we forget thee, O thou "man greatly beloved,”—thou pattern of undaunted Protestants? Shall we silently pass over thy bold protest against the foolish, absolute, irreversible decree of the day? No, Daniel: we come to pay our tribute of admiration to thy blessed memory, and to learn of thee also a lesson of true Protestantism. Consider him, my brethren. His sworn enemies watch him from the surrounding palaces: but he believes in "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," and his fearless soul has already vanquished their common lions. He opens his window, he looks toward desolate Jerusalem, with bended knees he presents his daily supplication for her prosperity, with uplifted hands he enters his Jewish protest against the Persian statute; and, animated by his example, I enter my Christian protest against the Calvinian decree. "If Daniel, in sight of the lions, durst testify his contempt of an absurd and cruel decree, wantonly imposed upon his king; by which decree the king hindered his subjects from offering any true prayer for a month, under pretence of asserting his own absolute sovereignty; shall I be ashamed to enter my protest against a worse decree, absurdly imposed upon the Almighty on the very same absurd pretence? A decree which hinders the Saviour of the world' from 'praying for the world?' A decree which Calvin himself had the candour to call horribile decretum? O how much better is it to impose upon an earthly king a decree restraining the Persians from praying aright for thirty days, than to impose upon the King of kings a decree hindering the majority of men, in all countries and ages, from praying once aright during their whole lives? And if Darius stained his goodness by enacting that those who disobeyed his UN-FORCIBLE decree should be cast into the den of lions, and devoured in a moment; how do they stain God's goodness, who teach us, as openly as they dare, that he will cast into the den of devils, and cause to be devoured by flames unquenchable, all those whom his FORCIBLE decree binds either not to pray at all, or to offer up only hypocritical prayers! I PROTEST against doctrines of grace, which cannot stand without such doctrines of wrath. I PROTEST against an exalting of Christ, which so horribly debases God. I PROTEST against a new-fangled Gospel, which holds forth a robe of finished salvation, lined with such irreversible and finished damnation."

Again: "If Moses had courage enough in a heathen country, and in the midst of his enemies, to enter his protest against the oppressive decree by which Pharaoh required of the Israelites their usual tale of bricks, when he refused them fuel to burn them with: shall I be afraid in this PROTESTANT kingdom, and in the midst of my friends, to bear also my testimony against the error of Honestus? An error this, which con sists in asserting that our gracious God has decreed that we shall work out our own salvation without having first life and strength to work im parted to us in a state of initial salvation? Without being first helpe by his free grace to do whatever he requires of us in order to our eter nal salvation? Shall such a supposed decree as this be countenanced by a silence that gives consent? No: I must, I do also enter my protes against it, as being contrary to Divine goodness, derogatory to Christ' merits, subversive of the penitent's hope, destructive of the believer' joy, unscriptural, irrational. And agreeably to our tenth article, PROTEST: (1.) In opposition to Pharisaic pride, that we have no powe to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of Go preventing us that we may have a good will, and working with us when u have that good will. And (2.) In opposition to Pharisaic bigotry, I PRO TEST, upon the proofs which follow, that God's saving grace has appeare in different degrees to all men; PREVENTING [not FORCING] them, that the may have a good will, and WORKING WITH [Note, our Church does n say, DOING ALL FOR] them when they have that good will. And I hop that when my Protestant brethren shall be acquainted with the merits the cause, they will equally approve of my anti-Solifidian and of m anti-Pharisaic protest."

But shall a blind zeal for truth carry me beyond the bounds of love Shall I hate Zelotes and Honestus, because I think it my duty to be my full testimony against their errors? God forbid! I have entered tv protests as a divine, and now permit me, my Protestant brethren, to ent a third as a plain Christian. Before the Searcher of hearts I once mo protest, that I make a great difference between the persons of good me and their opinions, be these ever so pernicious. The God who loves m -the God whom I love,-the God of love and truth teaches me to gi error no quarter, and to confirm my love toward the good men who p pagate it; not knowing what they do, or believing that they do G service. And I humbly hope that their good intentions will, in so degree, excuse the mischief done by their bad tenets. But, in the me time, mischief, unspeakable mischief is done, and the spreading plag must be stopped. If in trying to do it as soon and as effectually possible, I press hard upon Zelotes and Honestus, and without ceremo drive them to a corner, I protest, it is only to disarm them, that I m make them submit to Christ's easy yoke of evangelical moderation a brotherly kindness.

A polemical writer ought to be a champion for the truth; and a cha pion for the truth who draws only a wooden sword, or is afraid lovin to use a steel one, should, I think, be hissed out of the field of controver as well as the disputant who goes to Billingsgate for dust, mud, an dirty knife, and the wretch who purposely misses his opponent's ar ments that he may basely stab his character. I beg, therefore, that reader would not impute to a "bad spirit," the keenness which I indu

for conscience' sake; assuring him that, severe as I am sometimes upon the errors of my antagonists, I not only love, but also truly esteem them: Zelotes, on account of his zeal for Christ; Honestus, on account of his attachment to sincere obedience; and both, on account of their genuine, though mistaken piety.

Do not think, however, that I would purchase their friendship by giving up one of my scales, that is one half of the Bible. Far be the mean compliance from a true Protestant. I hope that I shall cease to breathe, before I cease to enter protests against Antinomian faith and Pharisaic works, and against the mistakes of good men, who, for want of Scripture scales, honestly weigh the truth in a false balance, by which they are deceived first, and with which they afterward inadvertently deceive others.

But, although I would no more yield to their bare assertions or inconclusive arguments, than to hard names or soft speeches, I hope, my honoured brethren, that they and you will always find me open to, and thankful for, every reproof, admonition, and direction which is properly supported by the two pillars of Protestantism-sound reason* and plain Scripture: for, if I may depend upon the settled sentiments of my mind, and the warm feelings of my heart, I am determined, as well as you, to live and die a consistent Bible Christian. And so long as I shall continue in that resolution, I hope you will permit me to claim the honour of ranking with you, and of subscribing myself, brethren and fathers, your affectionate brother, and obedient son in the WHOLE Gospel of Christ, A TRUE PROTESTANT.

POSTSCRIPT.

CONTAINING SOME STRICTURES UPON A NEW PUBLICATION OF RICHARD HILL, ESQ.

SOME time after I had sent this epistle to the press, one of my neighbours favoured me with the sight of a pamphlet, which had been hawked about my parish by the newsman. It is entitled, Three Letters written by Richard Hill, Esq., to the Rev. John Fletcher, &c. It is a second Finishing Stroke, in which that gentleman gives his "reasons for declining any farther controversy relative to Mr. Wesley's principles." He quits the field; but it is like a brave Parthian. He not only shoots his own arrows as he retires, but borrows those of two persons whom he calls "a very eminent minister in the Church of England," and "a lay gentleman of great learning and abilities." As I see neither argument nor Scripture in the performances of these two new auxiliaries, I shall take no notice of their ingrafted productions.

With respect to Mr. Hill's arguments, they are the same which he advanced in his Finishing Stroke: nor need we wonder at his not scrupling to produce them over again, just as if they had been overlooked by his opponent; for, in the first page of his book, he says, “I have not

By" sound reason" I mean the light of the world,-the true light which enlightens every man that comes into the world.

read a single page, which treats on the subject, since I wrote my Finishing Stroke." But, if Mr. Hill has not read my answer to that piece, some of our readers have; and they will remember that the crambe repetita-I mean his supposition that St. Paul and St. John held Dr. Crisp's doctrinal peculiarities, is answered in part first of the Fifth Check, [toward the close of the first volume.] As for his common plea taken from the objection, Who hath resisted his will? it is answered in this book.

As Mr. Hill's arguments are the same, so are also his personal charges. After passing some compliments upon me as an "able defender" of Mr. Wesley's principles, he continues to represent me as "prostituting noble endowments to the advancing of a party." He affirms, but still without shadow of proof, that he has "detected many misrepresentations of facts throughout my publications." He accuses me of using "unbecoming artifices, much declamation, chicanery, and evasion ;" and says, "Upon these accounts I really cannot, with any degree of satisfaction, &c, read the works of one who, I am in continual suspicion, is endeavouring to mislead me by false glosses and pious frauds." If I were permitted to put this argument in plain English, it would run thus :-I bespatter my opponent's character, therefore his arguments are dangerous and not worth my notice. I do not find it easy to overthrow one of the many scriptures which he has produced against Antinomianism, but I can set them all aside at a finishing stroke; for I can say, "The shocking misrepresentations and calumnies you have been guilty of, will for the future prevent me from looking into any of your books if you should write a thousand volumes. So here the controversy must end." (Finishing Stroke, p. 40.) When Mr. Hill had explained himself so clearly about his reason for declining the controversy, is it not surprising that he should suffer his bookseller to get sixpence for a new pamphlet, "setting forth Mr. Hill's reasons for declining any farther controversy relative to Mr. Wes ley's principles ?" i. e. to Mr. Wesley's anti-Solifidian doctrine, of which I profess myself the vindicator.

But another author vindicates those principles also. It is Mr. Olivers whom Mr. Hill calls "one Thomas Oliver, alias Olivers." This autho was twenty five years ago a mechanic, and like "one" Peter, "alias" Simon, a fisherman, and "one" Saul, "alias" Paul, a tent maker, has ha the honour of being promoted to the dignity of a preacher of the Gospel and his talents as a writer, a logician, a poet, and a composer of sacre music, are known to those who have looked into his publications. Mr Hill informs the public why he takes as little notice of this able opponent' arguments as he does of mine; and the "reason" he "sets forth" is worth of the cause which he defends. En argumentum palmarium! “I shall not, says he, "take the least notice of him, or read a line of his composition any more than if I was travelling on the road, I would stop to lash, o even order my footman to lash, every impertinent little quadruped in village, that should come out and bark at me; but would willingly le the contemptible animal have the satisfaction of thinking he had drive me out of sight." How lordly is this speech! How surprising in th mouth of a good man, who says to the carpenter, My Lord and my God When the author of "Goliah Slain" dropped it from his victorious per had he forgotten the voluntary humility for which his doctrines of grac