that my sins are forgiven, clear at first, but soon clouded with doubt or fear. The other is, such a plerophory, or full assurance, that I am forgiven, and so clear a perception, that Christ abideth in me, as utterly excludes all doubt and fear, and leaves them no place, no not for an hour. So that the difference between them is as great as the difference between the light of the morning and that of the mid-day sun.

9. On the second proposition you remark, 1. That *"I ought to have said the merits of Christ, are (not, the sole cause, but) the sole meritorious cause of this our justification. 2. That St. Paul and the church, by justifying faith mean, faith in the gospel and merits of Christ." The very thing; so I contend, in flat opposition to those, who say they mean, only the object of this faith.

Upon the third proposition, By our being justified by faith only, both St. Paul and the church mean, that the condition of our justification is faith alone, and not good works: You say, "Neither of them mean any such thing. You greatly wrong them in ascribing so mischievous a sentiment to them." Let me beg you, Sir, to have patience, and calmly to consider, 1. What I mean by this proposition. Why should you any longer run as uncertainly, and fight as one that beateth the air? 2. What is advanced touching the sentiments of the church, in the tract referred to above. Till you have done this, it would be mere loss of time to dispute with you on this head.

I wave, therefore, for the present, the consideration of some of your following pages. Only I cannot quite pass over that (I believe, new) assertion, "That the 13th Article, intitled,Of Works done before Justification,' does not speak of works done before justification, but of works before grace, which is a very different thing!" I beseech you, Sir, to consider the 11th, 12th, and 15th articles, just as they lie, in one view. And you cannot but see, that it is as absolutely impossible to maintain that proposition, as

* Remarks, p. 41. + Ibid. + p. 45.

it is to prove, that the 11th and 12th articles speak not of justification, but of some very different thing.

10. Against that part of the 4th proposition, faith is a sure trust which a man hath, that Christ loved him and died for him' you object," This definition is absurd; as it supposes that such a sure trust can be in one who does not repent of his sins."---I suppose quite the contrary, as I have declared over and over: nor, therefore, is there any such danger as you apprehend.

But you say, "There is nothing distinguishing enough in this, to point out the true justifying faith." I grant it: supposing a man were to write a book, and say this of it, and no more. But did you ever see any treatise of mine, wherein I said this of faith, and no more? Nothing whereby to distinguish true faith from false 2 Touching this journal, your own quotations prove the contrary. Yea, and I every where insist, that we are to distinguish them by their fruits, by inward and outward righteousness, by the peace of God filling and ruling the heart, and by patient, active joy in the Holy Ghost.

ath

You conclude this point: "I have now, Sir, examined large your account of justification; and I hope fully refuted the several articles in which you have comprized it.” -We differ in our judgment. I do not apprehend, you have refuted any one proposition of the four. You have indeed amended the second, by adding the word merito rious; for which I give you thanks.

11. You next give what you stile "The Christian scheme of justification," and afterwards point out the consequences, which you apprehend to have attended the preaching justification by faith: the third point into which I was to inquire.

You open the cause thus: "The denying the necessity of good works, as the condition of justification, directly draws after it, or rather includes in it, all manner of impiety and vice.—It has often perplexed and disturbed the minds

* Remarks, p. 48. + Ibid. p. 49. § p. 50. I p. 1, 2.
+

of men, and in the last century occasioned great confusions in this nation.—These are points which are ever liable to misconstructions, and have ever yet been more or less attended with them. And it appears from what you have lately published, that since you have preached the doctrine, it has had its old consequences, or rather worse ones: it has been more misunderstood, more perverted and abused than ever.

"The denying the necessity of good works, as the condition of justification, draws after it, or rather includes in it, all manner of impiety and vice." Here stands the proposition but where is the proof? Till that appears, I simply say, It does not.

"It has often perplexed and disturbed the minds of men." And so have many other points in St. Paul's epistles.

But these are points which are ever liable to misconstructions, and have ever yet, more or less been attended with them."-And what points of revealed religion are those, which are not ever liable to misconceptions? Or of what material point can we say, that it has not ever yet, more or less, been attended with them?

"In the last century it occasioned great confusions in this nation."-It occasioned! No; in no wise. It is demonstrable, the occasions of those confusions were quite of another kind.

"And it appears-That since you have preached the doctrine, it has had its old consequences, or rather worse. It has been more misunderstood, more perverted and abused than ever."-What! Worse consequences than regicide, (which you say, was the old one) and making our whole land a field of blood? Or has it been more perverted and abused, than when (in your account) it overturned the whole frame both of church and state?

12. You go on. "The terms of the gospel are, re

pentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. But when we undervalue either of these terms,

we involve the consciences of the weak in fatal perplexities; we give a handle to others to justify their impieties; we confirm the enemies of religion in their prejudices."

All this I grant; but it affects not me. For I do not undervalue either faith or repentance.

* "Was not irreligion and vice already prevailing enough in the nation, but we must-throw snares in people's way, and root out the remains of piety and devotion, in the weak and well-meaning? That this has been the case, your own confessions put beyond all doubt. And you even now hold and teach the principles, from which these dangerous consequences do plainly and directly follow."

"Was not irreligion and vice already prevailing enough" (whether I have increased them, we will consider by and by)" but we must throw snares in people's way."-God forbid! My whole life is employed in taking those snares out of people's way, which the world and the devil have thrown there." And root out the remains of piety and devotion in the weak and well-meaning?" Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself? Or of some other man?" Your own confessions put this beyond all doubt."-What? That "I root out the remains of piety and devotion?" Not so. The sum of them all (recited above) amounts to this and no more: "That while my brother and 1 were absent from London, many weak men were tainted with wrong opinions: most of whom we recovered at our return: but even those who continued therein, did notwithstanding continue to live a holier life, than ever they did before they heard us preach.' "And you even now hold the principles from which these dangerous consequences do plainly and directly follow." But I know not where to find these consequences-Unless it be in your title-p -page: there, indeed, I read of the very fatal tendency of justification by faith only," the divisions and perplexities of the Methodists, and the many errors relating

* Remarks, p. 3.

both to faith and practice which" (as you conceive) “ have already arisen among these deluded people."

However *❝6 you charitably believe, I was not aware of these consequences at first." No, nor am I yet: though it is strange I should not, if they "so naturally succeed that doctrine." I will go a step farther. I do not know, neither believe, that they ever did succeed that doctrine: unless perhaps accidentally; as they might have succeeded any doctrine whatsoever. And till the contrary is proved, those consequences cannot shew, that these principles are

not true.

13. Another consequence which you charge on my preaching justification by faith, is, the introducing the errors of the Moravians. "Had the people," say you, 66 gone on in a quiet and regular practice of their duty, as most of them did before you deluded them, it would have been impossible for the Moravian tenets to have prevailed among them. But when they had been long and often used to hear good works undervalued; I cannot wonder that they should plunge into new errors, and wax worse and worse."

This is one string of mistakes. "Had the people gone on in a quiet and regular practice of their duty, as most of them did before you deluded them." Deluded them! Into what? Into the love of God and all mankind, and a zealous care to keep his commandments. I would to God this delusion, (if such it is accounted,) may spread to the four corners of the earth! But how did most of them go on before they were thus deluded? Four in five, by a moderate computation, even as other baptized Heathens; in the works of the devil, in all the wretchedness of unclean living" In a quiet and regular practice of their duty!"— What duty? The duty of cursing and swearing! The duty of gluttony and drunkenness! The duty of whoredom and adultery! Or of beating one another, and any that came in their way? In this, (not very quiet or regular)

* Remarks, p. 4. + p. 12.