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MDCCCXXIV. », we : . a STRICTURES . "a | *, . | : *-. ON THE i Oh , PLYMOUTH ANTINOMIANS. ©) Pa SECOND EDITION, Enzarcup. BY JOSEPH COTTLE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, STRAND: BY J. G. FULLER, BRISTOL. tee MDCCCXXIV. ee 4 » Te oa ee, iy \ 4 ap a Me 2 « a ae \ . a?) = + ae : b 5 Ea - *. - i © l “ < TS ‘ wv eee . ‘ 4 By rr’: . = ‘ i n ‘ att Le i t é * ES AE ‘ , 4 a ce Se > ¥ “ ss : a Xs bs * : ‘ 4 ; ee: oe ; g>4 & é 4 = E « c r > ; , “ ” 7 ¢ oe ‘4 aie x ot: = > ue > i s. as y Red n \ \ Tee , mm j : Me , ‘ ‘ . Was y ‘ J 1 " he ; | 6 ‘ eee % » .@ PREFACE. HAVING applied a few stanzas to Antinomians in a small volume, which I was about to publish; —‘ Dartmoor and other Poems,” it was my original intention to subjoin to these stanzas, in the form of a note, a few comments on the dangerous nature of the Antinomian Tenets ; such tenets as I myself had heard enforced at Plymouth; but I soon found that the subject was too serious, and too complicated to be dismissed in so summary a way, and therefore deemed it most eligible to print my observations, as I have now done, in a separate and enlarged form. Some perhaps may consider any additional publicity given to the monstrous heresies of the B 4 2 Antinomians, as a measure of questionable utility, from a fear that such dissemination might shock the better informed Christians, while the minds contaminated with the doctrines here condemned, from the inveteracy of their prejudices, would be equally proof against remonstrance or argument. But are there none in an incipient state; hesitating © between right and wrong; just beginning to taste of the delicious poison, and whom the sub- sequent pages may timely warn? The most considerate, in every age, have not shunned to expose theological error, from a conviction that a preponderance of good would be likely to result from the exposure, and the attainment of which good would have been impracticable with- out specifying in what the reprobated errors consisted. The foe must be seen before a blow can be aimed. It should be recollected that from the time of Huntingdon,’ Antinomian sentiments have been advancing. He indeed was surrounded by a congenial atmosphere; men the most illiterate, who could believe and applaud all which their oracle uttered, however gross, vulgar, and un- scriptural ; but since his day the leaven has extended itself, and men of education, with some Clergymen, in the same ardour of delusion have * For some observations on this man, see a future note. 3 ventured to avow and to propagate these sen- timents. The evil has increased and is increasing, and are the friends of “pure and undefiled re- ligion” to remit their endeavours, to counteract and cure this wide-spreading infection? Must crowds of the unwary be allowed to be led astray by the weak, or the wicked, on questions of vital importance, from a pusillanimous dread lest by exposing such errors the sphere of their influence should be enlarged ? It has been my wish to exhibit, in these pages, precisely that degree of firm expostulation which the occasion imperiously required, and no more. But though I have endeavoured to preserve as subdued a spirit as comported with a fearless exposure of one of the worst heresies that ever associated itself with the Christian name, yet, the timid, who, from constitutional forbearance, are ever ready even to compromise truth for repose, may condemn, what they might not be disposed to imitate ; or, if they should not dis- courage the endeavour to resist these deplorable errors, may consider me as having exercised undue severity, and that what I had to offer (to suit their taste) should have been disarmed of all point, by references alone to. tame generalities. That the strict bounds of justice and propriety have been exceeded, I should be sorry to believe. It is undeniable that too much forbearance has ® 4 hitherto been exercised towards Antinomians; men who have so derided the limits of decorum, and, in their extravagancies, so outraged decency ; whilst the sentiments they advocate are so per- nicious, that they demand a treatment different from that to which others are entitled, and require that the character of the remedy should bear some proportion to the violence of the disease.—The Wise Man has said, “there is a time for all things,” but this cannot be the time to preserve silence, when Antinomians are confederating with direct Infidels, in assaulting all the old and ac- credited landmarks of religion and virtue. I may be permitted to state that it has been felt as a painful necessity to be obliged so often to introduce the name of Dr. Hawker in the following pages ; but as it is impossible to write on optics without recurring to Sir Isaac Newton, so to comment on Antinomianism necessarily suggests the name of Dr. H. the great patron and apostle of this creed. Independently of which, the following observations were suggested principally by this gentleman’s preaching, and are for the most part nothing more than animad- versions upon it. I might have exempted aehoy: from a certain species of personal inconvenience, if, instead of affixing my name to this small work, I had screened the author under some anonymous 5 signature, and had ambiguously referred to Dr. Hawker, by dashes and asterisks: but such tem- porizing does not accord with the structure of my mind. The charges here advanced are serious, from the averment of which I do not shrink, nor from the consequences of that aver- ment. My name, therefore, whatever reluctance I might feel, became indispensable, as a debt to the Public (who are the natural guardians of every man’s character: ) and even Dr. Hawker himself would prefer an avowed and open ad- versary (on public grounds alone) to one who might be deemed a secret slanderer from his withholding the only signet which indicated truth, and conferred responsibility. By the individuals whose theological views accord with those of the Doctor, I shall doubtless be deemed obtrusive, perhaps rude; for who can — condemn without incurring the displeasure of the condemned? But, by others, who consider Dr. H. as having attempted to make an irruption on the Christian world ;—as having, for many years, reflected discredit on religion, by promulgating various crude notions, and antichristian doctrines; and, especially, by those who duly appreciate the demoralizing nature of Antinomian tenets; by such I shall stand acquitted, and they will approve that salutary severity, which under Jess imperative circumstances could not have 6 been vindicated, and would never have been shown. But in this attempt to repel the aggressions of an enemy, who is the more dangerous from his adopting the profession, and wearing the garb of a friend, itis possible that many, who cannot refute my arguments, may endeavour to counteract them, by ascribing some general quality to this work ; perhaps by stigmatizing it as personal ; and who by such brief and pithy accusation, may flatter themselves with having given an effectual reply. Now personality is of two kinds: private and public. The first is indefensible ; but the latter is often not only justifiable, but laudable. | ; As an illustration of the distinction between these two kinds of personality—If I were to refer invidiously and individually to Dr. Hawker, or his family, this would be discreditable private personality: but, on the contrary, if I were to state that Dr. H.’s Addresses to his auditory, (in the estimation of the writer) were not more cor- rupt in many essential particulars, than they were incoherent, and contradictory, both as it respects themselves, and the Bible: if I were to declare that these addresses were, for the most part, com- pounded of a certain set number of words and phrases, ‘and that they were repeated to the thousandth time, without the redeeming virtue of 7 ingenious combination: if I were to affirm that it would be a misnomer to denominate these Addresses Sermons, from their being destitute of all approximation to a regular train of thought ; that they consequently consisted of disjointed sentences, thrown into common-place harangues, without beginning, middle, or end; exordium or peroration ; this would be merely the expression of opinion, to which all are liable who either verbally, or by writing, address the Public, and would not be private personality,—since, if it were so, our Public Journals would be wholesale ca- lumniators. But if this may be affirmed of an obscure individual, without violating the sanctuary of justice, how much more emphatically equitable is it, to comment on the sentiments of a minister, like Dr. H. who not only stands in a public ca- pacity, but who is recognized as the organ of his party ; who has notoriously renounced many of the doctrines of the Church, which he once zealously upheld, and who now, in the midst of numerous and increasing proselytes, broaches — sentiments of a clearly heretical descri ption, which absolutely tend to undermine all religion. This is not private personality. It is public personality, and the unbiassed reader will determine whether the subsequent observations are, or are not, _. founded in equity; and whether my censures have not been moderately applied, and amply 8 justified by the extraordinary circumstances which called them forth. Unless public teachers, in certain extreme cases, were amenable to public notice, the most pestalent doctrines might be extended from Caithness to | Cornwall, while none would dare to expose them, lest they should incur the grave charge of private _ personality. The public voice is a censor which restrains many a visionary. But perhaps it may be said, Why should a Layman, whose habits and pursuits have not been expressly devoted to polemics, present himself in such a conflict, when there are so many Clerical Champions, who would have exerted a stronger. arm, and have wielded a more tried and effective weapon? J am not quite certain whether an earnest remonstrance, like the present, does not come better from an impartial layman, who de- sires the good will of all, but, in the pursuit of that which is right, fears none, than it would have come from one of the clerical order. Yet although _ I may be wrong in this apprehension, to the latter part of the objection I most cordially accede, and should have rejoiced, “‘ Jf other had broken the sturdier lance”; but although thousands deplore the tendency of Antinomianism, and, in particular, regard with hallowed indignation that part of the fraternity which has so long discredited Plymouth, and excited pungent concern in the wisest and 9 best of its inhabitants, yet how few have advanced to seize the antinomian lion by the beard, and drag him forth to public observation! While this inglorious neutrality is preserved, the enemy, ever active, like all the emissaries of evil, is undermining the bulwark, and making disastrous incursions into consecrated ground. It may be remarked also, that those who could have conducted this exposure (cursory as it pro- Jesses to be) far more effectually than the writer, may be so circumstanced as to possess mo oppor- tunity for determining with absolute precision, the full nature and extent of these injurious doctrines, as dispensed from antinomian pulpits. I am not aware that such direct and ample proof of delinquency as the present, (I cannot use a milder term) has ever before been produced, and the ‘‘ law-despising visage” so effectually unmasked ; which has arisen from this plain cause ;—the opposition to Antinomians has been hitherto founded on what they have written, (which no doubt is bad enough!) but they are well known to modify their worst avowals, in appearing be- fore the public, and to reserve, as the following statement will sufficiently evidence, their most virulent poison for their beloved, blinded, and acquiescent hearers. Independently of which, ‘many of those individuals, who could most suc- cessfully have exposed error and vindicated truth, 10 if they possessed intrepidity and leisure for such a service, and for so long a migration, might feel a repugnance (to which I was no stranger) at listening Sabbath after Sabbath to ministers who held in such light estimation the “Saviour of the | World,” by deliberately opposing and perverting so many of “the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.” | In the following strictures [ have been influ- enced, I trust, solely by the hope of doing good, and, in some small degree, of counteracting evil; and though I may not accomplish all which I desired, yet some’ benefit may result from the endeavour; and I am thankful to the Almighty, that my life has been spared to bear this solemn testimony against “False Professors,” who are labouring to subvert all that is venerable and excellent in religion, and who must be regarded, by the most charitable, as determined enemies to the purity of that faith, for which Apostles pleaded, and Martyrs bled. I shall conclude these prefatory remarks, with the emphatic character of Antinomianism, from the pen of my friend, the Rev. R. Hall.—< The “Author is at a loss to conceive on what princi- “ ple, or for what reason, dangerous concessions “are due to Antinomianism ; that thick-skinned ‘“monster of the ooze and the mire, which no “weapon can pierce, no discipline can tame.— 11 « As almost every age of the church is marked “by its appropriate visitation of error, so, little “penetration is requisite to perceive that “ Antinomianism is the epidemic malady of the “present, and that it is an evil of gigantic size and deadly malignity. It is qualified for “mischief by the very properties which might ‘“ seem to render it merely an object of contempt; “its vulgarity of conception; its paucity of “‘ ideas; its determined hostility to taste, science, ‘and letters. It includes within a compass ‘‘ which every head can contain, and every “tongue can utter, a system which cancels ‘every moral tie; consigns the whole human ‘race to the extremes of presumption or despair; ; ‘“erects religion on the ruins of morality, and “imparts to the dregs of stupidity all the “ powers of the most active poison. The Author “ will ever feel himself honoured by whatever “ censures he may incur, through his determined nw an opposition to such a system.” i ‘ 7 ; s “ ‘ ’ oa aoe shy eae . * é tt " : { r Ss - } : } ‘ ate " . ier an ee, i 2 e ‘ re f [ . ) ~ uo woh wy t STRICTURES, &C. DURING a residence, at Plymouth, for many weeks, in the year 1822, and for a month in the succeeding year, I occasionally attended the ministry of Dr. Hawker; which I had done on several preceding occasions, and at long intervals. On these occasions, there was no prejudice in my mind. The present publication, in the frst imstance, was the farthest from my intention, and the determination to take some public notice of the Antinomians was adopted with reluctance, and arose purely out of the glaring nature of the anti-christian sentiments which I heard. Though I had long noticed in Dr. H. a partial, and latterly, a complete abandonment of some of the most important doctrines of the Reformation, 4 yet a lingering hope was entertained, that the tide might turn, the least indication of which would have been hailed with unspeakable joy; but this hope was soon extinguished, by my perceiving in Dr. H. progression, rather than retrocession. — _ With these preliminary remarks, I shall proceed temperately though firmly to comment on the Antinomian Heresies, such as have long been dispensed in Plymouth, and which exposure, in combination with others, more powerful, may, it is hoped, contribute, in some degree, “to stay the plague.” | I commence by observing, that censoriousness is well known to be a prominent feature in the Antinomian character; and Dr. H. evidenced this spirit, by representing his ministerial brethren (however laborious, useful, exemplary, and re- sembling their Divine Master) as men who knew absolutely nothing of genuine religion, whilst by their erroneous explanations of scripture (he being judge) they only insured their own ang their hearers’ destruction. To cite to Dr. Hawker the example of that Saviour, whom he professes to honour, but to whom he so often does despite, would, I am afraid, be idle; as it would be to confront his words with those of the Apostles. He stands on higher ground than that of the inspired writings, and contrives, through some inexplicable delusion, 15 to sustain his religious views, with the whole Bible arrayed against him. It was afllictive to notice the cold and callous manner in which Dr. H. consigned to endless ruin, all who were not in the state which he was pleased to call “the covenant,” or, in other words, (according to a fair interpretation,) who did. not profess themselves to be his own implicit admirers! The necessary concomitant of this privileged con- dition, in the estimation of all Antinomians, is, an mnoperative faith, and the more inert it is, the less it becomes. obnoxious to suspicion; but on the contrary, many individuals of this lax brotherhood : very naturally superadd to their “covenant state,” a license to act, and speak, and think, with ab- solute impunity, in any way the sinner likes best; ~ which allegation, if required, I could substantiate, by numerous sad, but conclusive examples. Dr. H.’s discourses are directed exclusively to those whom he denominates “the chosen,” and this he often expressly tells his congregation ‘ie Now on this particular subject of “the chosen,” I will offer a few words preparatory to the enter- ing on my more direct object, by which it will be rendered manifest, that Dr. H. ts inconsistent with his own avowed principles. No expectation, how- ever, is entertained of convincing Dr. H. who discerns not, or evades, the force of the most demonstrative arguments ; but a fervent hope is 16 cherished that some of the less confirmed Anti- nomians may pause ere they resign themselves to one of the worst of errors, and oppose, alike, the voice of reason and scripture. How are these “chosen” to be distinguished? Not, according to Dr. Hawker, in the way by which St. Paul was'persuaded respecting the be- lievers, at Thessalonica, that they were the chosen of God; namely, by their ‘“ work of faith,” and 4 * ‘labour of love,” and ‘patience of hope;”’ not be- cause the gospel had come to them, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, “as ye know,” says he, ans _. “what manner of men we were among you for your sake ; and ye became followers of us, and © of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were ensamples to all that believe.” Dr. H. on the contrary, endeavours to impress his followers with a conviction that they are “the chosen,” simply by his own affirmation that they are such, and which is proved, not by any scriptural test, but by their own settled confidence. Who can wonder that, some, perhaps possess- ing estimable qualities, but of weak judgments, should be associated often with others, who hold moral restraint at defiance, and make their Antinomian creed the apology for all that is evil? like the heathen Hindoos, who justify 17 their very sins by the latitude derived from their religion ! Aceording to Dr. H. the primary alah of» faith, is, not the testimony of God concerning his Son ; not the mediation of Christ, his sufficient ability and willingness to save all who come to him for eternal life. These are subordinate ob-. jects, whilst with him, the validity of faith seems to rest on the individual’s own confident persua- sion, that he is one of “the chosen.” But can any human being know that he is chosen, or, in other words, that he is a true Christian, except by the effects produced in his soul, which the Bible so expressly declares to be the necessary concomitants of such a state, and essential to such a character? It is nowhere declared in the scriptures, who, individually, is accepted of God or who is not, nor can it be ascertained by any man, as it respects himself or others, except by the “fruits of the Spirit.” On the one hand, by his believing in Christ; by his being renewed in the disposition of his mind ; by his being conformed to the image of his Saviour; by his concern to depart from all iniquity: by the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth ; or, on the con- trary, by his persisting till ote in n Impenitence and unbelief. Dr. Hawker carries his doctrines to the most awful extremes, and contends, that those who C o * powed PL believe as he does, or give a mere subscription to all-which he proclaims, must be admitted to the felicities of heaven, and vice versa. Their con- duct, he declares, cannot “frustrate the designs of the Almighty.” Whatever they are, or do, or say, or think, operates as no impediment. Though ‘they live and die like apostate spirits, they must sit down at last, with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, on the virtue of “the everlasting covenant,” and which covenant Antinomians peremptorily explain and apply! Dr. H. might hesitate in giving the statement tad in these words, but the doctrines he in- culcates, when fully developed, necessarily con- duct to this conclusion. I remark, further, that Dr. Hawker: in his zeal to exalt faith and to destroy good works, as the exclusive ground of the sinner’s acceptance, ad- vances into the opposite extreme, and decrys good works even as the proof of faith ; nor does he conceive it possible for a man to be “ careful 39 to maintain good works,” without his trusting in them. But can there be a more direful and per- nicious delusion than for an individual to affirm that he is one of “the chosen,” independently of all evidence, and especially for him to cherish this persuasion (as many Antinomians have done through the effect of false teachers) in an unrenewed state of the heart, and in a course 19 of the most flagrant dereliction of Christian conduct ? | ay There is a striking accordance between the spirit which actuates Antinomians of the present day, and that which influenced the Jews during our Lord’s personal ministry on earth. The Jews founded their reliance of future happiness on the Abrahamic Covenant, though they did not “the works of Abraham :” Antinomians rely on a co- venant of their own creation, (for it certainly is not in the Bible) which gives them impunity in the practice of “bad works,” and exonerates them from all obligation to perform those that are “good.” The Jews called themselves the children of God, but the Saviour of the world pronounced _ them to be “the children of the devil:” Anti- nomians call themselves exclusively “the children’ of God,” but how many of them also, it is to be feared, are “the children of the devil.” The Jews maintained a confidence in their own safety, because God was their Father, but they rejected the law of God, which was not in their hearts: Antinomians express their assurance of attaining heaven, because Christ is their Saviour, though they renounce the /aws and precepts of that Sa- viour, and like their great prototypes affirm, that they will not have this man to rule over them. But without pursuing the analogy through many other family features, it will be sufficient to observe 20 that the Jews “were righteous, and despised others ;” ant. here the resemblance amounts to identity, for Antinomians esteem themselves to be the only righteous, because, as they assert, the righteousness of Christ is ‘ wnconditionally” trans- ferred to them; and he, they believe, has done so much for them, that they need now do nothing for themselves ; either as a proof of their allegiance, or as a test of their faith: and as to the second resemblance, that of ‘“ despising others,” Avn¢i- nomians sustain this as their characteristic mark. They do indeed despise the whole professing world, and fulminate their denunciations against them, with an asperity, scarcely surpassed by any instance in the dark annals of Popery. The spring of all the Antinomian errors, is, that pernicious doctrine called “ LImputed Sanctification!”? Not that doctrine which teaches 2 The Reader cannot but be pleased with the following very appro- priate remarks on this subject, by Dr. Ryland. ‘ Can a man whose “ understanding is not perverted by a deceived heart, apply the “‘ language of the Apostle Peter to an imputed and not an inherent “sanctification? ‘Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be “ sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto “ you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not “f fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, “ but as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of “conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. It “ were easy to multiply similar quotations, but if these few express “‘ testimonies of scripture are not sufficient to refute so absurd and “‘unscriptural a notion, we must fear that they who maintain it are “ given up to a mind void of judgment which nothing can cure. 21 man to confide in a better righteousness than his own; not that doctrine which enforces on us “ But if Recs be any internal sanctification, is it progressiyag is *“‘ there any such thing as growth in grace? and is growth in grace a “duty? Here I understand there are professors who would return “a negative answer. But what saith the Apostle Peter? ‘But *¢ grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus ~ Christ.” What said Paul? ‘The Lord make you to increase and “ abound, &c. we beseech and exhort you to abound more and more.’ ** And in his Second Epistle to the same church, he says ‘ We are “bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because “that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of every one of ** you all towards each other aboundeth.’ “ In order to judge better of this sentiment, let us consider the fruits “of the Spirit separately. If there be no growing in faith, why did “the Apostles ail apply to their divine Lord, saying, ‘Increase our “ faith.’? If there be no such thing as growing in love, why did Paul “¢ pray so earnestly for the Ephesians, that they might be ‘ rooted and “ grounded in love,’ and be ‘filled with all the fulness of God.’? And *‘ respecting the Philippians, he says, ‘ This I pray, that your love “may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and all judgment; “that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be “ sincere, and without offence till the day of Christ ; being filled with “ the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory *« and praise of God?’ “ Can a man understand and relish these inspired patterns of prayer, “* enter into the spirit of them, adopt them for himself, and yet say, ‘¢ There is no such thing as progressive sanctification, or growth in ‘“‘ grace? Can such a man say, It is not my duty to be ‘any more “‘ humble, penitent, patient, submissive, or resigned to the wiil of God, “ than Iam already? Can he suppose, that it is no duty to realize “ things invisible, and set his affections upon them, more than he does “already? Is it no duty to make more constant use of Christ’s me- “ diation, and to live on his fulness more than he does already? No “¢ duty to run the race set before him, or press towards the mark for the “ prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Surely sucha ~ © man is not of Paul’s religion ! ” 5 Dr. Rytanp’s Preface to Mr, FULLER’s Treatise on Antinomianisin. 22 humility from the consideration of our sins and infirmities, and urges us to say, “ Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord!” but that doctrine which robs the heart of the very desire to do good; which induces a complacency in the most inconsistent walk; which represses every aspiration to be more conformed to “the will of God ;” and which makes the sinner, .still loving and immersed in sin, talk of Christ’s sanctification being imputed to him! But he who will be Judge of quick and dead, has anticipated their sentence. He will say to them “in that day,” ‘“‘T never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity !”’° There is, and must be, perfect harmony between all the parts of scripture, rightly understood; and if one particular portion appears, in its first as- pect, to stand opposed to the whole current of scripture, should not the candid mind make the less submit to the greater? But instead of bend- ing to the manifest spirit of the whole Bible, the Antinomian fixes his eye on an insulated passage, and deduces from it some perverse interpretation. 3 On this subject the 11th Homily bears its impressive testimony, and expresses the language of the True Church in every age. “‘ May a servant do what he will in any thing, having commandment “ of his Master to the contrary? Is not Christ our Master? Are not “ we his Servants? How then may we neglect our Master’s will and “ pleasure, and follow our own willand phantasie? Ye are my friends, ‘* saith Christ, if you keep those things that I command you.” 23 He passes over a thousand direct declarations, and after separating some particular text from its — context, elevates it into a fundamental principle ;_ “deceives many ;” founds a school; introduces heresy into the church, and thereby grieves the sincere believer, and strengthens the cause of Infidelity. | | Thus in one place it is said, “ Christ is made unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” and on this detached passage, Anti- nomians chiefly erect their system, and tell their followers, If Christ’s sanctification is imputed to them, they need not attempt to “sanctify the Lord’ God in their hearts,” as it is already effectually done for them. Duty they esteem to be a fable ; Obedience a dream; and personal Holiness, both in desire and practice, a satanic delusion.— They affirm also that the mere consciousness of believing is all the evidence necessary to satisfy the soul of its safety ;—that sanctification is not progressive, and that the Holy Spirit does not convict of sin, and inspire the re- generated heart with a hatred of it.* It is 4 Some of these monstrous sentiments have been ably combated by a pious and learned Clergyman of Bristol, (the present Minister of St. James,) The Rev. T. T. Biddulph, in a Pamphlet, entitled “A Searchafter Truth inits own Field, the Holy Scriptures.” The following is an extract from the above work, referring to the 8th of Romans ; and the Reader cannot fail to be pleased with so good a specimen of 24 almost hopeless to reason with such minds. Every verse in the 119th Psalm is a refutation close and pertinent reasoning. The whole pamphiaiitlcseryes the. perusal of every serious reader. “ Chap. viii. 1. Mark how the Apostle describes those who are ‘in “ Christ Jesus :’ They ‘walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.’ “For what purpose, but for the sake of discrimination, is this de- “‘ scription added? And how is discrimination to be obtained but by ‘‘ applying the rule to the point that is to be determined ? “Ver. 4. Mark the end for which ‘God sent his Son in the likeness *- of sinful flesh, and for sin (or by a sacrifice for sin,) condemned sin “in the flesh,’ passed sentence of final destruction on it. The end is “ “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk “not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” The righteousness here ‘* spoken of is not the righteousness whereby we are justified, but that & of Sanctification, The believing sinner is not only justified by faith “in Christ; but a stream, an emanation of holiness, flows from Christ “ to his soul, which, through the forbearance of God, shall never cease, “till it has sanctified him wholly, both soul and body; and till his “‘ Redeemer shall present him ‘faultless before the presence of his “ slory.? “Ver. 5. By what rule are ‘the things of the Spirit,’ to be distin- ** guished from those ‘ of the flesh,’ if the only criterion be abolished? Is the relish of the sanctified soul an imputed relish ?- “ Ver. 7, ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God,’ &c. What is ** the converse of this proposition, but that the spiritual mind loves ‘‘ God, and is subject to his law ? . “ Chap. ix.10. Do not the opposed phrases, ‘the minding of the “flesh, and ‘the minding of the Spirit,’ denote the state of the “ affections in the opposed characters of the carnal and spiritual man? “And is not this state of the affections made by the Apostle the cri- “ terion of lifeor death? Is not the state of the spiritual man, as such, “described by this, that‘ the Spirit of God dwelleth in him’? And “does not this clearly mark a state of personal holiness, derived ‘indeed, but real and not imputed? For can the Holy Spirit make “ the heart his habitation, and not diffuse holiness there ? : ““ Ver.14.16. Is not the being ‘ led by the Spirit of God, made the “evidence of being ‘the sons of God?’ How does the Spirit bear 2. —— a a ee a ee li a an acini encal i —e — © 25 of their impieties; and were it not to warn and deter others, not yet fully initiated into such “* witness wiMous spirit, but by the effects which his influence pro- “duces in our spirit or soul? Is not this view of his witness plainly “ suggested by the preceding context? And what are those effects, “but ‘ the fruits of the Spirit? mentioned Gal. v. 24. &c. constituting “ that spirituality of mind which is the vitality of religion, the essence “of spiritual, and the preparation for eternal life? The Apostle says ** not a word of that essence of absurdity, imputed sanctification ; nor “Care his words, by any possible torture, capable of accommodation “ to that notion. ‘ “Ver. 19, 20,21. Mark the object of universal expectation and “desire, ‘a deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the “ glorious liberty of the children of God.’ This expectation and desire “are ascribed to those (and indeed they are felt by those only) who “have been previously delivered from the bondage of guilt by par- ““doning mercy. What then is the glory of the future state but, “ essentially and chiefly, this deliverance from sin? Is not the state “ of that man very suspicious, who, relying on an imputed sanctification, “neither feels, nor wishes to feel, the burden of corruption, and has no “ anxious desires after deliverance from it? Wherein does conformity to ** God consist but in holiness? And is not holiness, then, mentioned “here, as a link in the golden chain, anterior to clorisesalee Are ** believers now the brethren of the first-born Son; and are they not “ distinguished, even in this their nonage, by the family features, by ‘an incipient likeness of him for whose sake they are adopted? Is “this conformity to his image imputed or communicated? It will “appear in our further inquiries that this. conformity is also, sub- ‘ ordinately to the glory of God, the end of effectual calling, and of *¢ justification; and that it is the essence of glorification. Let it be “remarked that, in the Apostle’s gradation of blessing, effectual ‘“ealling precedes justification. To assert that he refers to the “revelation of the benefit of the soul, and not to the act of justifying “* mercy, is to beg the question. ““ Ver. 33—39, Among the things which cannot ‘separate from “ the love of Christ,’ no mention is made of sin; because he who saves “us from hell, saves us also from that which leads to it—the dominant “ power of sin, To say that sin cannot hurt a believer, betokens a state 26 errors, the writer of these “Strictures” might have preserved silence, from utter despair of ever being able to arouse Antinomians from their slumbers, which appear, for the most part, to be firm and fatal as death and the grave! , Yet I would intreat Dr. Hawker, and that most earnestly, again to review his tenets: although one who has wandered as he has done, authorizes but faint hopes of his attaining better apprehen- sions, yet I would even earnestly intreat hum, and and especially those who have not yet drunk deep in this heretical stream, to go to the Fountain-head of truth, and reconsider, dispassionately, without foreign aid, and without prejudice, the direct words of inspiration. Has not the Bible pronounced, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”? Was not this the prophetic character of Christ— (45th Psalm)—* Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness.”? Did not Isaiah declare to the Jews, ‘“‘ Your iiquities have separated between you and your God.”? Did not Paul, (whom Dr. Hawker affirms to have been an Antinomian!) explicitly maintain,. that those who are in Christ Jesus are to be known by their walking, not after ‘¢ of heart unacquainted with the evil of sin, and with the nature of “ that salvation which is the subject of the gospel message.” Rey. T. T. BIDDULPH. 27 the flesh, but after the Spirit? Did he not insist upon it, that if any man was in Christ, he was a new creature ; and that if any one had not the spirit of Christ, he was none of his? Did he not exhort those to whom he wrote, to examine themselves whether they were in the faith; to prove their ownselves, to know their ownselves, to ascertain whether Jesus Christ was in: them, by the fruits brought forth in their lives? Did not the Saviour, in whom they profess to trust, declare to his followers, and through them to all the generations of men, “I am the Vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” Did he not again say, “I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should bring forth much fruit.”’—“ Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.”?—: “Tf ye love me, keep my commandments.”?— “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I com- mand you.”? And did he not direct his disciples, “to go forth into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature?” Could it be believed, if it were not confirmed by incontestible evidence, that any, who declare themselves to be the followers of Christ, and avowedly deduce their doctrines from the Bible, should despise the solemn injunctions here named, and frame for themselves a creed, at variance 28 with all the sacred records? Is there any other class of professed Christians who fail to regard their Saviour as exemplifying all that is excellent in principle and practice? and yet, whilst Anti- nomians retain his name, many of them even question his moral purity, and at the same time disdain the precept which he enforced, and the practice which he displayed ! When was it ever known that an Antinomian reiterated these injunctions of the great Head of the Church? One of this class of teachers (who needed the best teaching) lately beheld a female follower, who was one of his zealous admirers, in a state of zntoxication, when the only reproof he could find in his heart to give her, was, “Ah! Judith! I see you have forgotten your Lord, but he has not forgotten you.” And this he said without entertaining the least apprehension that either she or himself could have been mistaken respecting her interest in, what he called, her ‘“‘ covenant state.” Here I might incidentally ask, if Antinomianism bea good, and the greatest good that man can _ possess, how do Antinomians prove their bene- volence by burying such a treasure in their own breasts, districts, and countries? | Where are their missionaries? What efforts do they make to preach this gospel of theirs to distant nations ? If it be the truth, they cannot be too zealous in 29 extending it, yet we behold no endeavours to spread the glad tidings! Can they be sincere in this estimate which they form of their “ purified Christianity,” or is not their taciturnity and their lingering local propensities, some indication of misgiving, “that all is not as it should be.”? But if they be sincere, and esteem consistency, and believe that it is the duty of all men to make others as wise and happy as they are themselves, where are their corresponding efforts? Why do they not astonish the world by an essay to esta- blish an Antinomian Missionary Society! and send their illuminated brethren to convert the dark nations of the earth? They possess high ad- vantages, and such as are exclusively their own. Other missionaries are obliged to plant their battery against the almost impregnable fortress of human nature, but the precepts of Antinomians (to change the figure) would flow in perfect ac- cordance with the polluted stream of earthly desires. Other missionaries find their efforts often frustrated by the ungracious words which Conscience forces them to utter ; but Antinomians would appear among the heathen as privileged friends, who would “go in and out amongst them” with universal acceptance. They would prove to be, (in one sense,) the most successful mission- aries on earth.—Keep your lies, (might they say) keep your cruelties, keep your impure orgies ; 30 we only want your faith in all we declare, and this talisman will infallibly protect and guide to heaven. | Instead however of evidencing any solicitude to convert the heathen, and to erect truth on the destruction of error, like the first. teachers of Christianity ; instead of subjecting themselves to toil and danger in disseminating their tenets, they hover around their own hearths in indolent secu- rity, and, as an apology for not acting them- selves, raise their loudest condemnation against those who sacrifice all that is dear to man, that distant nations may know the truth, and unite under the banner of the cross. But though Antinomians will pass no Rubicon to redeem from captivity the slaves of Satan, in remote regions ; although they display the most rooted antipathy to disturb the usurpation of Boodh or Mahomet, they feel no repugnance to subvert the harmony of every Christian congregation to which they can find access. Diseord attends them like a shadow. ‘They are constantly influenced by a restless passion, not to produce in others the peace which results from the love and fear of God, but, to znstruct men how bad they may be without en- dangering their safety, to undermine the faith which has produced the manifest fruits of the Spirit, and, from their delight in dissension, to live like the Australasian Peteral, in an element of storms. 31 A friend, who knew all the following circum- stances, has informed me, that, at a certain town,. where the inhabitants had been remarked for their sober attention to religion, one of the late Antinomian Seceders from the Church arrived, when, by exalting Fath and decrying Works, as all emanating from the Law, with which Christians, he said, had nothing to do, he produced a com- plete ‘revolution in the place. This success he acquired by his appeal to the corrupt passions, by telling his hearers that all who thought as he did, were decreed to eternal life; and that, being interested in the decrees, the fluctuation of frames and feelings, sins and frailties, how- ever great, could not, in the least, counteract designs which were settled from all eternity. This Seceder told his hearers, like Dr. Hawker, that “‘ God was not constrained by merit, nor re- strained by demerit,” that ‘ sin could not hurt them,” &c. &c. and by these addresses, so con- genial to the unregenerate heart, he first alienated the inhabitants from their own teachers, and finally, as the next part of the process, from re- ligion altogether, at least in any form deserving of the name. What a moral the concluding part of the narrative will convey! This very Antinomian Seceder himself, after producing INCALCULABLE ‘MISCHIEF, mow confesses that “he has been wrong,” and hopes by recommending in future 32 the true sentiments of the Bible, to counteract, as effectually as he can, his past deplorable errors and extravagance.° | One circumstance, in particular, occurred at this town, which deserves notice. A notorious drunkard who knew just enough of religion to prefer heaven to hell, could not help showing himself in different places of worship, but— wherever he went, he complained that he could find no comfort. When the above Antinomian, however, arrived in the place, the intemperate man at once exclaimed, “ This is the abiotic Sor me!” Such an occurrence conveys a lesson of memo- rable importance. Here is a confirmed drunkard, who on a profession of the Antinomian faith, is at once, authorized by his minister to entertain the highest confidence of being decreed to eternal 5 What a shout would be heard in the Camp of Israei, and what a proof of Christian ingenuousness would it be,if Dr. Hawker should ever follow the example of this Repentant Antinomian, and confess and deplore his aberrations from truth and wisdom! The friends of religion would hail his return with an exultaticn proportionate to the concern they felt at his sinking into the Slough of Antinomianism, and abandoning the sentiments with which he so honourably, and so use- fully commenced his Christian career. There are latent prejudices in his favour, arising from the remembrance of the past, and a fond hope is still cherished by many that he will yet, like the wanderer among the tombs, return to his “ right mind.” But while he continues to head the hostile force, he must expect the treatment and opposition of an enemy. 33 happiness! and this without finding it necessary to sacrifice any one of his corrupt habits, but merely to profess attachment to a creed, which gives every thing, and requires nothing! Dr. H. and the class to which he belongs, would do well to consider, that the Apostles al- ways preserved a striking consistency, in adapting means to ends. The Apostle of the Gentiles de- clared, that he kept under his body, lest having preached to others, he himself should become “a 5) castaway :” and almost to his expiring moment, _ he preached Christ, “warning every man, and — teaching every man, in all wisdom, that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” But where is the warning and teaching of Dr. Hawker? Can he be equally free from the blood of all men, who scruples, nay who absolutely refuses to fol- low the example of Christ, of his Forerunner, and of the Apostles, in calling upon sinners, in- definitely, to repent and believe the gospel? His addresses extend not to the unconverted and dis- obedient; he condescends not to warn those, who, by attending on his ministry, give at least some evidence that they are inquiring “the way to Zion.” It is “ the chosen” alone (as he often re- minds his congregation, ) for whom his solicitude is excited,—those, according to his own views, who do not need it ; and all others, in his estimation, are no doubt, refuse weeds, the sooner burnt, “the D . 34 better.”! The indescribable impressiono f sur- prise and affliction will never be effaced from my mind, which arose, when I heard Dr. Hawker, for the first time, tell his crowded congregation that his discourse was addressed alone to the chosen! How differently did the Saviour of the world treat the fallen sons of Adam. He, when he beheld a multitude, opened his mouth with blessings, and through his whole ministry stood at immaculate distance from the enforcement of those bitter and bigoted restrictions which Antinomians, who as- sume his name, dare to utter in the temples of eur God! Is this hts religion, it may be asked, who came into the world to save all who call on his name? who beholding a much larger con- course, exclaimed “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden.”? Does this cor- respond with the example of him who wept over impenitent Jerusalem ? who exclaimed, ‘“ How often would I have gathered you as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wing, but ye would not!”? or with that scripture which declares, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- righteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.”? or with these encouraging words, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” ? Here are invitations, from the Fountain of good- ness and truth, which Dr. Hawker cannot with his 39 heart repeat! I reiterate it—though the words of Infinite Goodness, which Dr. H. cannot with his heart repeat ! By thus limiting his addresses to those whom he is pleased to call “the dear people of God,” (a phrase with him of perpetual recurrence, and by which designation he understands his own followers,) Dr. Hawker is performing works of absolute supererogation. He is evidently at va- riance with his professed faith; for if the purposes of God are supposed to clash with the use of means for the conversion of sinners, or the ad- vancement of the divine life in believers, how is it that he preaches? If neither sinners, nor saints should be exhorted, because it is the Spirit that quickeneth, and none can succeed in arousing them without his resistless energy, by the same reasoning he ought not to instruct his followers, and attempt to comfort “‘the dear people of God,” for it is the Spirit’s work, exclusively, to lead into all truth, and the Antinomian, who attempts to be the instrument for effecting this object, or to com- fort “the feeble-minded,” according to Dr. H.’s own reasoning, only discovers an arrogant desire to divide the great work with Omnipotence. It is incontrovertible, that, if means are wholly nugatory, it becomes unqualified presumption to exert the slightest effort to turn the sinner from the error of his ways! And here Dr. Hawker 36 preserves a dark consistency with himself: but another consequence follows. If Christians are never to be “edified and built up,” by human means ; if penitence is no essential prerequisite to the pardon of sin, and the favour of God; if turpitude, in principle and practice, (provided a nominal faith exists in the mind) offers no impe- diment to either ; obedience is both unnecessary and unrequired, and however long and fervent may be the appeals of Antinomian ministers, wn- less they desert their principles, they have in reality nothing to offer their hearers. All the ordinary avenues to the heart are effectually closed ; and hope and fear are alike the phantoms of an idle imagination. If Dr. Hawker never stimulates his audience to higher attainments in religion, ad- vancing from the germ, to the blade, and the ear, for what reasonable end can he assemble statedly his large congregation? his harangues can pro- duce no influence, as he affirms, on those who are “without the covenant,” and as the illuminated, in his view, are as immoveable as stars, no strenuous affirmations of his, can either accelerate their pro- gress toward heaven or make them more certain of attaining it than they already are.® 6 Dr. WaTTs has thus happily exposed the folly of those who dis- card means in the accomplishment of ends. ‘ You believe that God «has determined the time of your continuance fn this world, and do ** you live idle, and refuse to procure food, or to partake of it, on this =. 37 ~ In contradistinction to all the good men who have ever irradiated the world, Dr. Hawker’s primary design, in preaching, appears to be, to make his followers satisfied with themselves: en- couraging them neither to bewail, nor to forsake transgression, nor to aspire after the least increase in holiness. It might almost be supposed that he dreaded in them too near an approximation to heaven, lest they should not be sinful enough to be saved : consistently with which, he labours to repress in his hearers, the least rising of desire to “press forward,” and confidently affirms they must remain stationary, and never will or can be better than they are. As obedience forms no essential ingredient in the Creed of Antinomians, the in- ference is manifest that they are under no obligation either to forsake old sins, or to abstain from new ones; and if they should display a total absence of all the “Fruits of the Spirit,” so strikingly re- “ pretence, that God will prolong your life to his appointed hour, and “‘ that he will provide food for you, and make you eat and drink, if be * designs you should live? No. You apply yourselves with diligence “to obtain your daily bread, and to partake of it: you take care to ‘“‘ make use of the appointed means to preserve natural life, and why ‘“‘ do you not practise the same with regard to your salvation, and seek “ after faith and holiness as the appointed means. It is a sign you “ value eternal life at a very low rate, if you will venture the loss of ‘€ it, upon such a weak pretence as you dare not trust to in the things “ of this life. That man who goes down to the grave, or who goes “* down to hell upon these principles, perishes like a fool, and deserves “to perish.” 38 capitulated by the Apostle, (Gal. v. 22, 23.) they pass it all over with the sweeping declaration, that “ Christ is magnified in saving such sinks of iniquity!” This is indeed emphatically “turning the grace of God into lasciviousness!” It is only: requisite for this faith, instead of being specu- latively retained, to be brought out into full exercise, as an operative principle, and then, as the necessary consequence, Impure Hindostan would be esteemed “the land of uprightness,” contrasted with Christian Britain. Cana lighter charge be uttered, when Dr. H. unequivocally tells his hearers, that they cannot be more holy than they are, nor endanger by any act subsequent to their (imagined) conversion, the certain fe- licities that await them? -T'o give proof of their faith, is, with him, an artifice of their grand ad- versary, and only evidences a “‘legal spirit.” To drink of the Doctor’s polluted streams, it appears, infuses at once into the renovated heart, an in- destructible principle, which no action can impair, except perhaps heretically forsaking the precincts of his own church. | If sin, as he affirms, cannot hurt the Christian, is not this opening the flood-gates to every enor- mity? Is it not subverting the fine moral edifice; which it is the great object of religion to erect, and which casts a fostering and benignant shade: over, otherwise (in the energetic language of Mr. 39 Hall) “a deserted and fatherless world”? Is it not destroying the immutable distinctions between right and wrong, which Eternal Wisdom has established? And can men who thus endeavour to disseminate in the Christian world such pesti- lent doctrines be regarded in any other light, than as enemies to the Truth, opposers of the direct declarations of God, and thereby auxiliaries of Satan ?7 7 An argumentative and elaborate article, (deserving of universal perusal) on Antinomianism, (a Review of the present pamphlet,) appeared in the Christian Observer for Nov. 1823. I shall feel much satisfaction in occasionally availing myself, in the notes, of the confirmatory remarks of so forcible a writer. The following will be the first melancholy citation. “The doctrine concerning progressive holiness, as held by Dr. ‘¢ Hawker, and expounded ina tract written for that purpose, has not “the merit we had thought at least its due, on reading the first few “¢ pages; that of being utterly unintelligible to man, woman, or child. “‘ The very plain sentenee in it which follows, redeems it from that ‘imputation. ‘ Did these men (the greatest servants of the most high “< God,) indeed feel what they said, and under such impressions could “ any one have made them believe the doctrine of inherent holiness, “and progressive sanctification?’ What completes the paragraph we “ dare not transcribe; and we can only say, that if the day does not “ come, when its author, like Cranmer, might wish that right hand burnt “ from the arm which traced the sentiment, it will be no symptom to us of “ Dr. Hawker’s good progress of any kind. “ We paas the writer ; but we have no terms to express our feelings ‘with respect to those younger men who uphold the writing : and we * shouid consider the tract—we do not even nume it—as incapable of dis- “ tribution b y any one whose intention was not to corrupt the principles, * and seduce the morals, of the household which received it.” CunisTIAN OBSERVER, Nov. 1823, —p. 717. 40 If the most direful exhibitions of moral depra- vity are not wniversally displayed by Antinomians, it results from no inherent quality in their creed. Their abstinence from evil depends alone on the flexible compact of the will. The world of iniquity is wide before them, “ where to choose their place of rest,” but, as Lord Bacon has ob- served, (in different words,) it is possible even for certain Atheists not to become general pests ; for the Almighty, in his superintendence of human affairs, so balances checks with propensities, and so counteracts bad principles, by the restraints of society, and other subordinate considerations, that tenets, dangerous in themselves, and often pro- ducing, in particular individuals, their full mea- sure of evil, are so counteracted in others as to divest them of their worst consequences. Cir- cumstances alone develop the true character: the lion may be soothed, and the serpent charmed ; but their dispositions, and their capacities for -“ mischief,” remain unaltered. In listening to the sentiments, before noticed, adverse alike to the commands of Heaven, and the interests of men, I did indeed feel my spirit kindle within me, whilst I sustained an augment- ation of concern from the remembrance of Dr. Hawker’s former preaching and writings. He was once an advocate for the truth. Some of his pieces have a practical and sanctifying tendency, 41 and such also had his sermons. He appeared once to have partaken, in some measure, of the spirit of his Divine Master. He understood, at one time, that the Christian life was a race ; that a goal was in sight; and that a crown was held out to the faithful believer, who continued. stedfast to the end : but now all is reversed. The palm is acquired without the race ; the goal is reached, and the crown, whick awaited the patient con- tinuer in well-doing, is already worn! ‘Ye did run well: who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?” And here I cannot but notice the subtile nature of error, and, that when the scriptures are once renounced as a standard of faith, and arule of life, the enemy enters into the heart, “like a flood,” and conducts from one portentous stage to another, till at length no enormity of speculation or con- duct may not be entertained and practised. A friend whose spirit would shrink from giving a false colouring to any statement, has furnished me with one of many similar declarations which he heard from the Rev. Wr. Arnold, of Exeter; one of the Antinomian ministers who lately seceded from the Church. “Good men” he said, “preach the gospel sometimes, but then they preach that blasphemous doctrine of sanctification. I say that blasphemous doctrine of sanctification, and repentance, and 42 sorrow for sin! What do they mean by sorrow for sin? Did not Christ feel sorrow for sin? - What do they want with sorrow? There is no such thing in the scriptures as godly sorrow! And repentance—what do they mean by repent- ance? It never means sorrow for sin, but a turning from the Law to the Gospel! Do they mean to take the glory of Christ’s sufferings from him? Believe and rejoice is all that we are called unto!” At the rehearsal of such sentiments, all the spirits of darkness must have rejoiced! Yet Mr. Arnold is called @ good man ! “So are they all, all honourable men!” Such blasphemies against sense and scripture must possess, with some classes, peculiar attrac- tions; for more than one hundred members, and more than two hundred stated hearers, passed over in a body, zm one week, from a valuable minister at Exeter, that they might. bask under the full blaze of Mr. Arnold’s enlightened instruction!”® 8 One Antinomian minister, (whose name I withhold from the hope that he will ere long see how exceedingly mad he is against the truth,) repairs of a Sunday evening to a tavern, to read the papers, &c. in order to show his contempt for the Law! ‘The very same feeling would lead him to the violation of all God’s commands. Paris would exactly suit this minister, where, (as the Rev. J. W. Cunningham observes, in his Cautions to Continental Travellers,) “ there is literally no Sabbath. “The Sabbath, in Paris, is not a day of rest, but of increased dissi- “ pation. The shops are open; the courts are held ; the theatres are “‘ thronged; and the public shows, and national celebrations are “ eagerly multiplied.” In so genial a soil, Antinomians might expect to reap a luxuriant harvest. . 43 If Dr. H. were to disclose, for the first time, his present direful opinions, to his own, or to any congregation who had derived their faith purely from the Bible, it is impossible not to believe, that they would revolt from him, with alarm and horror: but why should such effects be produced. if there were not in his preaching some quality adverse to the truth? The decided repugnance to Antinomianism, in every unsophisticated mind, - is to be overcome alone by a slow process of un- dermining, in which one outwork after another is’ sapped, till, finally, the citadel falls, “and by is the fall of it!” Dr. Hawker declares that it was only of late years that he knew the [Antinomian] truth, but this acquisition was made by protracted grada- tions, and the same progressive light (“ or rather darkness visible”) he has communicated to his hearers, “here a little, and there a little,” till at length, even with the scriptures before them, their views are completely assimilated to his own! But as the process is still advancing, can Dr. H. determine where he will stop?—or into what new region of error he will not conduct his too credulous flock? Judging of the future from the past, wherever he leads they will follow. He has wandered himself far out of the right way, _ and multitudes inconsiderately attend his foot- steps, dreaming of safety, in the. very vortex of 44 destruction ; nor can any power, short of Omni- potence (through his own appointed instruments) arouse them or him from their torpor, and reveal the perilous gulf on the verge of which they repose.? The marvellous domination which Dr. H. has acquired over his hearers’ minds illustrates human character, and furnishes a striking in- stance, how effectually men, sometimes, may be made to renounce all independence of thought, and after resigning into other hands the under- standings they cannot guide, to follow their spiritual pilot, resolutely, though quiescently, down the “broad” and fatal stream of delusion. _* Dr. Hawker admits, from scripture, that heretics were to spring up in the last days, and in commenting on 2 Peter ii. 1, he thus un- wittingly describes himself and his Antinomian friends. “ Here again “ observe ; the heretics which the Holy Ghost foretold should spring “up in the latter days to trouble the church, are not said to be the “openly profane, but professors: such as would mingle, and be found “among the people. .And they are not mere hearers, but teachers. “‘ And the doctrines which they are said to bring in, are not at once ** plainly and honestly delivered by them, as men taught of God would “do; but privily, that is, cautiously, and little by little !” Mr. Scorr says, on this same passage, ‘As the false prophets “ opposed the holy men of God, under the old dispensation ; and, by “ flattering and deceitful words, obtained a pernicious ascendency over “the minds of the people, so there would be false teachers in the “ Christian Church, who would by similar methods draw off professed “ Christians from the holy doctrines of the Apostles and other faithful “preachers. The deceivers would not, at once, openly and directly “‘ oppose the leading truths of Christianity, but they would work “* with unsuspected subtlety ; and by degrees, under specious pretences, “ clandestinely introduce such false doctrines, as tended to subvert the “very design of the gospel, and make grievous divisions in the church ! ” 45 Considering the number of Dr. Hawker’s pub- lications, inculcating his new views; the zeal with which, in cheap forms, he has dispersed them; and his insinuating volubility, it is probable that his pernicious influence has tended to corrupt and obstruct Christianity, at least in the West of England, (where Antinomianism has made an alarming progress,) more than any ten Infidel writers who could be named. The latter chiefly confirm unbelievers in their faith; those who were antecedently enemies to the truth, “by wicked works;” but here is a minister that has unhappily obtained possession of a Christian pulpit, who now “makes havoc of the church,” and though a professed shepherd, exerts his unwearied efforts (unintentionally it must be sup- posed) to pervert and contaminate the flock! And here I wish to observe, that with Dr. H. individually, I] have no controversy. He may be every thing his friends believe him tobe. My reravarks are directed, not against the man but his opinions, and if I am earnest in my exposure of what I conceive to be most dangerous Doctrines, it arises, solely from a desire to arouse the ill- instructed to a sense of their hazardous state, by a solemn appeal to their understandings, and the records of Inspiration. | Dr. Hawker is now advancing fast to the ter- mination of his labours. The hoary head intimates 46 to him that the Bridegroom is at the door! Can self-deception proceed so far as to enable him to say with one, between some of whose sentiments and his own there is an interminable space, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”? It behoves him seriously to review the prominent character of his discourses, and, if in his heart he is not satisfied that the doctrines he so zealously advocates, have a direct tendency to promote the honour of God, the purification of the heart, the discouragement of sin, and the advancement of personal holiness; I warn him to pause, and as he will have to answer it ere long, before the tribunal of heaven, in this his eleventh hour, and while time for re- traction and repentance is still vouchsafed, to imitate, in his preaching, the only infallible standards—Christ and his Apostles.° In order © Will Divines, (who are not Antinomians,) pardon my ‘suggesting a query whether the habit is quite defensible, to which some of them are subject, of lessening the force of the Evangelists, by statin, that the truth was but imperfectly known, till after the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost? Ihave seen and heard this declaration made, rather incautiously, and which tended to derogate from the Gospels, in order to add weight to the Epistles. The broad features of Christianity were, undoubtedly, developed with more precision, after that memorable day; but still it should be remembered that the Gos- pels are the language of Christ, and of inspiration, and that they are immaculately pure, and decisive, as far as they go, both in precept and example. The words of our Saviour are not to be lowered from their high import because Truth diffused her brighter irradiations after the descent of the Spirit. The two periods may be compared to the 47 to be exonerated from the condemnation of the wicked, Antinomian ministers ought to preach against themselves to the day of their death. Who but Antinomians, and those whom they have blinded, can recognize in the jargon of right and wrong, which they constantly utter, the beneficent spirit of Christianity? which instructs us to feel for all as brethren, and whilst it inculcates the example of Him, “ who was a Samaritan,” enjoins on its advocates (regardless of “secret things” which “belong to God”) to endeavour, with the blessing of the Highest, to convey spiritual benefits to the fallen and wan- dering sons of men, universally, and that with an earnestness proportioned to the unspeakably ereater value of eternal things over those which are merely transitory and temporal. This blending of right and wrong, in Anti-- nomian preaching, above referred to, is the cir- cumstance which powerfully augments the perilous nature of such discourses. Next to the promul- gation of unquestionable good, the exhibition of palpable evil is to be desired. The latter, in its clear poisonous superscription, is rendered com- paratively innoxious, by warning every eye, and morning and noon-tide sun. The latter may display an excess of effulgence, but the former is also the genuine sun; and in extolling ~ the one, especial care ought to be observed, to abstain from ianguage : which might possibly be construed into a depreciation of the other. 48 furnishing an antidote to every heart; but where good and bad are equally combined, or a few grains of truth are united with a mighty pre- ponderance of error, the one operates as a bait, and minds of slender discernment, and therefore disqualified for nice separations, often drink in the whole, to their unutterable confusion. I can truly affirm that one of the most affecting sights I ever witnessed, connected with a religious exercise, was presented to me in beholding Dr. . Hawker’s spacious church thronged to the ceiling with an attentive audience apparently “ feeling” after the truth ; desiring the best gifts, as far as they nadatoad them, and who were fed, but, - verily, not with the “ Bread of Life.” 4“ We deny that the views and statements of morality advanced “ by Antinomians are scriptural. They are no more scriptural than re they are Mohammedan. They resemble the sacred scriptures no “ more than they resemble the Koran, or the Vedas of the Hindoo. “ We speak only to one point, the point of morality. We expressly “ confine ourselves to this point: and we say, that to the point of “ morality, their writings and sayings are as remote from scripture, “nay, more remote, than the moral sayings of Mohammed, er of “ Zoroaster, or of Confucius. We appeal, in testimony of what we “ affirm, to the whole current both of ancient and modern Christianity. “We appeal to every received commentary on the sacred record. “ We appeal to the authority of men who, for very shame’s sake, Dr. “‘ Hawker surely would not (as he is too much in the habit of doing ) “ consign to perdition, for sentiments differing from his own. “We appeal toan immense proportionof the very highest Calvinists ; “ Calvinists, with whom the quarrel of the world is not the laxity, but “ the severity, the rigour and sublimity, of theie moral code. We ap- “peal to Dr. Hawker himself—his former self—and his former writings. 49 Far be it from me to involve in one sweeping - condemnation all who attend the addresses of Dr. Hawker. His hearers no doubt deem him to be enlightened from above, and fancy that they derive from his explications of scripture, grander, . and more luminous views of truth. It would be uncharitable not to indulge a hope that many of these decorous listeners manifest how possible it is (as the late excellent Mr. Fuller has expressed it) for men to be “better than their principles ; ” and many of whom, it might be only necessary to know, in order to revere: but the question is, not whether a volcano may not emit some light, gleaming through an oppressed atmosphere ; not whether a verdant and solitary pine may not sometimes be descried amid the sterility of an Alpine winter; but, whether the doctrines en- forced by Antinomian Ministers naturally tend to make their followers more humble, better members of society, more tender toward the unfortunate, more upright in their secular trans- actions, more zealous to extend the glad tidings of salvation to the nations that sit in darkness ; and, as the final criterion, whether such preach- ing necessarily conduces to confirm men in the “ We only do not appeal to those unhappy and ignorant followers of Dr. “* Hawker, who have nothing of him bat his dogmatism, his very per- “ versions of texts, ill understood and erroneously stated.” CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, Noy. 1823, p. 7138, E : 30 “fear of God,” that beginning and only test of Spiritual wisdom ! se, In pursuing this argument, it must be observed, that many persons proceed to the consideration’ of the question at issue with the Antinomians, with a false bias on their minds. It is of little consequence whether Antinomians be young or old ; whether, like Dr. Hawker, they be respect- able in private life, or, like some others of his class, proverbial for their immorality ;. but. the grand point to be determined is, whether the: sentiments attributed to Antinomians, be, or be not, | fairly chargeable upon them; and which sen-- tiuments, if so substantiated, (as they are, it is presumed, by these pages,) must, in universal: estimation, be regarded as being. directly caleu-. lated to counteract the commands of God, and. consequently to undermine the whole morality of the Bible. If Antinomians be justly obnoxious ‘to. the accusations of their opponents, it results, as: an incontrovertible conclusion, that men: enter-_ taining and propagating their doctrines, are False. Teachers ; that they preach a corrupt and > fatal gospel; and that the whole Christian world » should unite, as one man, in reprobating and. opposing their destructive errors. Truth must stand on its own base; and false doctrine is equally false, whether promulgated by abandoned Profligates, boasting Pharisees, or antinomian Latitudinarians. ol Can it be questioned, that religion, rightly understood and sincerely felt, exerts a transform- ing influence? The thief that stole, steals no more, and so on through the whole decalogue ; but if hearers are never instructed in their duties and obligations, but on the contrary are perpetually reminded of their privileges, and the efficacy of faith, without the accompanying works which evidence the reality of that faith, they are cri- minally pampered with false hopes, and their condemnation will be, that they have trusted to the declarations of fallible men, and have not, with a teachable heart, consulted the divine records. With the Bible before them, in all its hallowed precepts, and splendid examples, and with the Holy Spirit waiting to instruct, if rightly implored, they possess no justifying plea for their ignorance; but thrice more ageravated will be his judgment, who deliberately mis-directs the inquirers after truth, and cries “ Peace! Peace | when there is no peace.” % Will Dr. Hawker affirm that Christianity has not a tendency to enlarge the sphere of human sympathies, and to transform the selfish, the intemperate, and the profane, into their direct opposites? To entertain a different opinion is hardly ascribable to a rational being, and yet so hazardous is it to predicate any thing respecting the sentiments of Dr. H. as the consequence of 59 premises which all others admit, that though I presume on the preceding inference, it is very doubtful whether such a concession would be granted ; but venturing to believe that Dr. H. would admit that Christianity possesses this ten-— dency, should he not, as a conscientious minister, and as the necessary consequence of such ad- mission, suffer his tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth, rather than not remind his hearers of so salutary a truth? Ought he not, in con- sistency with such views, often and faithfully to declare, that the impenitently disobedient, as well as the “ believers,” but not “doers,” (those who have a spurious faith and hope, but xo charity, ) will never call their Judge their Father, or (in the mysterious language of the Apocalypse) have “right to the tree of life.”7". | Instead of thus proclaiming what the great Head of the church, and his disciples have en- graven, as with “an iron pen, in the rock for ever ;” instead of inculcating practical truths (so i2 If the following verse were not supported by innumerable other verses, of the same tendency, it would be subversive of the whole system of the Antinomians. ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the fruth in unrighteousness.” If those are condemned who hold the truth in unrighteousness, what must be their condemnation, who reject both, and hold neither truth nor righteousness! It might be conjectured that such thoughts would startle them, but Antinomians are furnished, from the worst armoury, with ready bucklers, to turn aside the “sword. of the Spirit!” 53 intimately pervading the whole of Sacred. Writ,) in some due proportion to the frequency with which Doctrines are enforced, this ill-fated as- semblage seldom hear from him the least sound of admonition! nor are they taught even to sus- pect, that their renunciation of all that is bad, and their exemplification of all that is good, at least in desire, intention, and effort, determines alone the valid entrance of truth into their hearts. It may be affirmed, unhesitatingly, that Paul addressed more admonition and caution even to two Evangelists, Timothy and Titus, in his short Epistles, than Dr. H. has addressed to his whole auditory for the last seven years. | Ifa man asserts, “I am sure of going to heaven,” he may be right, or he may be wrong; abstractedly regarded, strangers are personally interested in neither alternative; but if we perceive in the man who thus expresses his assurance, an inc ‘ease of fidelity ; more honour, disinterestedness, and kindness ; if we find that the faith which he has professed, produces a solicitude to “stand in awe and sin not;” an increased tenderness of conscience; a growing love of holiness, and reverence for the commands of God, with the other effects which uniformly spring from the religion of Christ, in all their beautiful diversities, -we are interested in this man. We derive from him, in common with all around, substantial’ 54 benefits, and at the same time receive from ‘his example a fuller confirmation of the renewing and elevating influences of genuine Christianity.” A wish to ascertain how far the opinions of the Rev. John Hawker, of Stoke Church near Plymouth, accorded with those of his father, in- duced me to attend also his ministry ; and what will the reader say, upon understanding that this gentleman surpasses even his sire, in all that is extravagant, acrimonious, and antichristian ; and that he, also, openly avows and exults in the profession of Antinomianism. From the: wide spirit of denunciation in which he occasionally 's Few occurrences, in the history of Missions carry a more de- monstrative evidence of even the present utility and humanizing effect of such institutions, than an occurrence connected with the little Island of Taha, (according to the accounts of Mr. Bennett, recently received by the London Missionary Society, from the South. Seas.) The inhabitants of this Island, a few years ago, were not only idolaters, but such'was their indignation against the Raiuteans, their neighbours, for renouncing their country’s idols and embracing Christianity, that they declared war against them, when, after a hard conflict, the king of Taha was defeated and taken prisoner. On former occasions it was not unusual to put all prisoners to death; but the King of Taha was pardoned by Tamatoa, the Christian King of Raietea, kindly treated, and returned, by him, in safety to his own island. It appears that this unexpected and extraordinary lenity produced such an effect on the King of Taha, that he also renounced idolatry, embraced Christianity, and after many earnest solicitations, obtained a Missionary (Mr. Bourne) fo settle with him as a permanent resident. On his arrival, he was hailed by king and people with enthusiastic delight; and on the landing of Mrs. Bourne, seyenty women of the island fired a salute of musketry. c a ee 55 indulges towards others, and his own confidence of entering heaven; in the estimation; of “the Rev. John Hawker, of Stoke near Plymouth,” (to imitate one of his own hyperbolical illustra- tions) if only two created intelligences were to be admitted into the celestial mansions, they would doubtless be, first, Himself, and, secondarily, the Angel Gabriel! , . This is the Clergyman of the Church of England, this is the professed follower of the compassionate Saviour, who could declare from his pulpit, “If there be an individual present, who disbelieves, or who entertains a doubt, of the truth of every word. contained in the Bible, I would not go outside that porch, to convince him of the truth as it is in Jesus.”! ‘There are first which shall be last, and there are last which. shall be first.” Mr. Hawker has the reputation of being a creditable liver, and a humane man; but such is the warping and inhumanizing nature of his system, that he who, from his first natural impulse, would rush to save a drowning fellow- creature, would not stretch forth his hand to rescue an unconverted brother from eternal death ! In so deep a sense of this inefficiency and su- perfluousness of means, it would appear incredible that any motive should be found powerful enough to prompt such an individual to the exercise of his ministerial functions, if we did not recollect o6 that the keen eye of an Antinomian can discern between the means which are connected with ‘ the mammon of unrighteousness, and those means which tend merely to repress vice; admonish transgressors; stimulate the faithful; and magnify the Saviour; by proclaiming salvation, through his name, to every believing, penitent, and obe- dient sinner. | Some men are great talkers without being in- ordinately such. Their speech, copious as it is, results from reflection; and though they speak fast, yet this capacity has been purchased at the expense of slow thought, while they preserve, at the same time, a symmetry and coherence in their discourse, which constitutes it, wisdom in the essence, rather than a crude unconcocted effusion. But on the contrary there are many redundant expatiators, who in all they utter. propose to themselves no ulterior or specific object; whose speech is coeval with or rather antecedent to their thoughts. Now they pursue one train of ideas, and then an opposite, alternately averring and retracting : and now again, in the plenitude of promise, they charm the patient listener with an encouraging gleam, that seems the forerunner of a bright rising, but, by the usual fatality, this momentary irradiation soon expires in total dark- ness. At length, wearying and wearied, the sage declaimer, after expending to no purpose a 57 prodigious number of words, and running in a circle which leaves no trace on the memory, ulti- . mately terminates his protracted and laborious circumlocutions, in enforcing some favourite tru- ism, or by saying, in a rigid sense, “just nothing at all: ” who are always offering to demonstrate, and who by some unaccountable illusion, mis- take the offer for proof. These are the verbose, vapid, and incessant talkers who endeavour, though ineffectually, to make v.p by the abundance of expression, what they want in the weight of meaning, and who decide with a characteristic promptitude, where Milton and Newton would have hesitated. This feverish and impetuous constitution of their minds (if other circumstances were more favour- able) disqualifies them for grappling witha com- prehensive thought, and pursuing it, through all its recondite bearings to a legitimate issue. Ex- traordinary as it may appear, the want of all the elements of intellectual strength, instead of secur- ing diffidence, inspires them, on the contrary, with pride and confidence, which, by an inverse effect, rise and luxuriate in exact proportion to the sterility of the soil. They carry not about them the matured judgment which insures a steady and safe course through the shoals of di- _versified opinions. They may sometimes be right, for who is always wrong? but if they seize on 58 truth, it is ascribable more to a fortuitous “pounce,” than to an eye steadily fixed; that first. fascinates its object, and then secures it by the vigour of its mental grasp. Their tongues are always on full stretch, running a race with their’ understandings, with the prospect, if not certainty, of the “little member’s” complete success; nor can it be otherwise, when they deny themselves that pause for consecutive induction, which the elucidation and mastering of truth, in all her departments, necessarily demands. Ideas they indeed possess, like the orders of friars, black, white, and grey, and thick and superficial as the cress on a summer pool: and this plenitude of disorganised conceptions, they have the faculty of supporting by a formidable array of words, which astonish some, confound others, and amuse a third. A mule does not more imperiously re- quire a bridle in his mouth than a man who has’ the misfortune to be afflicted with this confirmed and inane volubility. ' nee ‘Some Antinomian ministers give clear indica- tions of belonging to this class. They decide on all subjects, past, present, and to come, manifest, or profound, with one intuitive glance. All is confidence and dogmatism, while every proposi- tion is reduced at once to its simplest result, “It is,” or “It is not.”.. As it concerns divine. subjects, and where respect is paid to the express 59 limits of revelation, affirmation is warrantable ; but in discussing those points, where there is no direct authority, and in reference to subjects, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, wisdom and reverence equally demand caution. These gentlemen, on the contrary, take a lucid view into the invisible world, and found their hazardous as- sertions on presumptuous and flimsy reasonings ; which, however, always carry conviction to their evn minds, and, it may be conjectured, to most of their hearers. Doubt, on every topic, appears to be exorcised. Mists and darkness offer no ob- struction to their vision. All is either the peak, or the valley, without any intermediate space, and they expatiate on the hidden ways and ordinations of the Almighty, as if they had stood by, ‘spies on Heaven’s work.” But this digression is conducting me too far from my primary design.” If such sentiments as these gentlemen entertain, — ‘were pursued to their inevitable consequences, it would tend to impugn the very wisdom of God, in bestowing any Revelation whatever on man, combining as it does, the example. of prophets and apostles, who, through a succession of ages ‘4 The writer once heard Dr. H. say, from his pulpit. “Some people want to know whether there will be singing in heaven. There will be no singing there. We shall be better employed in heaven than in singing songs!” 60 preached righteousness and warned transgressors to “flee from the wrath to come ;” all which, it appears, was not “written for our instruction.” Had the Almighty formed an arbitrary determina- tion to save out of earth’s teeming and successive populations, the diminutive band of Antinomians only, and that without bringing them in this life, “through sanctification unto obedience ;’ the end might effectually have been answered, without any other intervention than the silent purpose of God. We should then have witnessed the appalling spectacle, of the redeemed, advancing toward : heaven, without a preparatory meetness! and the world at the same time exhibiting a moral chaos that assimilated it to an appendage of hell! In- finite Wisdom, however, bestowed on his revolted creatures, a Bible, and a way of escape through the inestimable gift of his Son, who, in every word he uttered, condemned those who say, “Lord!” “Lord!” while they do not the things which he has commanded. The Saviour of the world has promised “ life eternal,” to those who, pooh faith in him, feed his destitute “brethren;” give drink to the thirsty ; accommodate the stranger; clothe the naked; visit the sick; and cheer the prisoner; but igs there exist some external and discriminating mark, namely, the mark of OBEDIENCE to his precepts, where are we to look for those whom he con- 61 descendingly denominates “his brethren,” that we might testify a compliance with his commands ? None can dive into the recesses of his fellow’s heart, but conformity to the divine requirements furnishes the test to which Christ himself so con- stantly appealed, as designating his brethren. We may confidently repose therefore on the as- surances derived from this source; and though plausible, but deceptive resemblances, sometimes cloak an unrenewed heart, yet we cannot recur to higher evidence than external appearance ; and benefits rendered to such as furnish this. test, whether misplaced or not, are acceptable with the Almighty. But if those who profess to be the “children of the Most High,” present no other proof of their affiliation, than bare assump- tion, effectually counteracted by an unfruttful faith, we know not whom to deem “ the disciples of Christ,” and, consequently, a duty is exacted of us, and a reward offered, without any possi- bility of our complying with the one, or (in a restricted sense,) of our deserving the other ; and this perplexity is augmented ten-fold, if the avowed “brethren of our Lord” are not only not distinguished from others by their good works, but are notoriously eminent for their bad ones! _ We should indeed exercise some forbearance toward these unhappy gentlemen, nor reason too closely with them, for it really ¢ appears to exceed “ 62 the utmost stretch of an Antinomian’s understand- ing, to comprehend the distinction between the moral, and ceremonial law, between the abrogation of the one, and the perpetuity of the other: and it is this obtuseness of their faculties, which _ makes them accumulate all the scripture declara- tions, that the law (ceremonial) is abolished, and which they adduce as a triumphant evidence, that the law, (the moral, the eternal law of Right- eousness,) is superseded; or, in their own impious phraseology, that it “is not obligatory upon,” or, ‘an imperative rule to believers.”! * % Mr. Topiapy thus writes, “ By Antinomianism, I mean that “ doctrine which teaches, ‘That believers are released from all ob- “ ligation to observe the moral law, as a rule of external: obedience: “ that, in consequence of Christs. having wrought out a justifying “ righteousness for us, we have nothing to do but to sit down, eat, ‘€ drink, and be merry; that the Messiah’s merits supersede the “ necessity of personal inherent sanctification, and. that all our “ holiness isin him, not in ourselves: that the aboundings of divine “ grace give sanction to the commission of sin; and, in a word, that “ the whole preceptive law of God is not established, but repealed “and set aside, from the time we believe in Christ.’ This is as “contrary to sound doctrine, as it is to sound morals: and a man “need only act up to those principles to be a devil incarnate. It is “ impossible, that either the Son of God, who came down from heaven “to perform and make known his Father’s will; or that the Spirit “ of God, speaking in the scriptures, and acting upon the heart, should “administer the least encouragement to negligence and unholiness “ of life. Therefore, that opinion which supposes personal sancti- “ fication to be unnecessary to final glorification, stands in direct “opposition to every dictate of reason, and to every declaration of ar foupteres “ Without a spiritual and Geral Rseritlance of God, there can be “no real felicity on earth, nor any future enjoyment of heaven. 63 It is undeniable that the conclusion to be drawn from Antinomian preaching, is, that man has neither a natural nor a moral ability to comply with the commands of God; and that he cannot be made even a medium, by which spiritual bene- fit may be conveyed to a fellow-creature. Those who are the most enlightened from above, it appears, are compelled to lie like logs on the ocean, operated upon by influences, over which they have no control. This is the blackest: Jatalism that tongue can utter, and is opposed from the first verse in Genesis to the last of Revelation. The incapacity for doing any good, ' so earnestly contended for, involves terrific con- sequences. If men can present no freewill offering to God; if they can fulfil no one com- mand required of them, but must remain bound, “ Suppose we appeal to experience. I speak now to you, who know *¢in whom you have believed; to you who have received the atonement, “and who have been sensibly reconciled unto God by the death of his “Son. Ifat any time you have been off your guard, and suffered to “lapse into sin ; how have you felt yourselves afterwards? Ye have “ gone with broken hearts and broken bones. Ye have found it, ‘« indeed, to be an evil and bitter thing to depart, though éver so little, “ from the Lord. Ye know, by dismal experience, that the way of “ transgressors is hard, and that sin, like Ezekiel’s roll, is written, “within and without, with lamentation and mourning and woe. The ° “ gall of bitterness is inseparable from the bond of iniquity. Upon “the principle, therefore, of mere self-interest, (to go no higher,) a “true believer cannot help aspiring to holiness and good works. “ Heaven must be brought down to the soul, ere the human soul ean ““ be fitted for heaven.” : Caveat against Unsound Doctrine. 64 like the strong man of Gaza, how can they hereafter be accused of having been “slothful servants”? If they are denied the very capability of doing good, except when used as an insensible instrument, like the plough which forms the furrow, they cease to be sentient beings, and therefore cannot be “commended” for doing what they had no power not todo. The senti- ment is an outrage on common sense, as well as on scripture. Man through the whole Bible is both regarded and addressed as an accountable being, not as an automaton. Good and evil are set before him ; commands are given, and penal- ties are attached to their violation, but if man, like a machine, is restrained or propelled, without choice or motive, and his own will is as passive as the wax which receives the impression, ac- countability is a phantom! “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.”! But is it not stumbling in the full blaze of day to entertain opinions so adverse to the whole spirit of the Bible? It would be inconsistent with the equity of the Righteous Judge to punish a worm for doing that which it had no power mot to do; and whatever Antinomians may affirm to the contrary, in that world where the veil will be removed, . and the harmony of the Divine government be rendered manifest, God will vindicate his ways, and iniquity be found to attach alone to man, 65 as an accountable, and therefore a voluntary transgressor. ' Some men, like Mr. J. Hawker, in their zeal to ascribe all to God, (in one sense most properly) overlook the important truth, that the Supreme Being, so far as we can judge, through the whole system of his government, acts by second causes ; and while angels find a plenitude of j joy in becom- ing his “ ministering spirits,” shall man, made a little lower than the angels, refuse all participation in so delightful an employ, and though enjoined to respect the Almighty’s precepts, shrink back, and impiously affirm that he has not the power, when he only wants the will, or, (provided that will be intractable,) the heart to implore a better will? To refer to such subjects as the prescience of God, and the freewill of man (which have so di- vided theologians in all ages) is to touch on tender ground. Locke has declared that he could not reconcile them, though he believed in both. This candid confession became so great a philo- sopher, and so good a man; and, as we see here but “in part,” much must be left to the “ light of Heaven.” But in opposition to this great reasoner, how many shallow declaimers pro- fess to understand (perhaps with truth ) all the harmonious blendings of these profound questions, as lucidly as they comprehend F 66 the demonstration of the simplest mathematical theorem.” , | If difficulties do indeed vanish at their glance, let them not combine, with this privilege, doc- trines which remove responsibility from man, by abasing him down to a cipher, while in continuity of their deviations from wisdom, they inwreathe sin with honours, rather than brand it with disgrace. Under the influence of Antinomian instructors, what iniquities have not been indulged, and crimes perpetrated ; and can the direct instigators condemn such natural, if not necessary effects, when the whole tenor of their preaching is cal- culated to foster hope, in the deliberate violation of all God’s commands? This statement, though strong, cannot be denied, as it is a mecessary corollary from the doctrines which Antinomians = 16 The learned BisHop TomLINE thus writes, “ The prescience of “ God, as extending to every instance of human conduct, from the “ creation of man to the final consummation of all things, is a fit *¢ object of our belief ; but we are utterly incapable of comprehending “how this prescience consists with the other attributes of Deity, “ and with the free-ageucy of man; nor can we conceive how those “ future contingencies, which depend upon the determination of the “ human will, should be certain and infallible: and yet that they are “ so, is fully proved by the accomplishment of prophecies. Rather than “ bewilder ourselves in the inextricable difficulties of such contem- “¢ plations, to which our limited faculties are by no means competent, “we should exclaim with the Psalmist, ‘Such knowledge is too “‘ wonderful for me, I cannot attain unto it.’ ” Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles. EE eee 67 explicitly avow. Actions with them do not inva- hidate faith. If secure in their faith, they stand in an impregnable fortress, and the real question is, not what Antinomians choose to do. From - Some motive, separate from the law of God, they may choose to maintain a decent deportment, but if they entertained a different choice, no possible violation of either table of the law, could consist- ently shake their confidence, that they were advancing in the high way to heaven, though to all impartial observers, they might be deemed walking, or rather running in the broad road to hell! Throughout the divine records, however, it is traced, as with a sun-beam, that whoever neglects, or resists, the reiterated and most ex- plicit injunctions of our Saviour, from the belief that internal, or inherent sanctification, or obedi- ence to the moral law, is rendered unnecessary by the obedience of Christ ; and especially whoever revels in iniquity, under ihe satanic plea of ho- nouring him, although he wear a sanctimonious exterior, and make broad his hypocritical phy- lacteries, participates in his ineffable guilt who before he betrayed his Lord, treacherously cried, ‘“‘ Hail Master! and kissed him!”” ‘7 Instead of attempting myself to refute this doctrine of Imputed Sanctification, I shall rather present the reader with the opinion of the venerable, erudite, and highly respected Dr. RyLanp, President of the Baptist Academy, Bristol. 68 But has the Christian now no rule for his con- ‘duct? no clear directory how he ought to walk * Some of late, deny all internal sanctification. They are for imputed “ sanctification, as well as for justification by an imputed righteousness. “ T have learned from scripture, ‘that by the obedience of one many “shall be made righteous ;? and I cordially embrace the blessed “truth. But the same scriptures teach me, that ‘ without holiness “no one shall see the Lord:’ and Pe charges all believers in the “name of the Lord, ‘ As obedient children , not fashioning yourselves “according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as he who “hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; “because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.” Is it possible that “common sense can admit of this passage being applied to nothing “but an imputed sanctification? Yet I have heard of those who so “ state this important subject, as if no believer possessed any internal “holiness. ‘ All his holiness, say they, ‘is in Christ.’ We would “‘ stedfastly maintain, that all the believer’s holiness is Srom Christ; ** but God forbid that the true Vine should keep all its sap in the “ root, and impart none to the branches. “ They deny that sanctification is progressive, or that it is our duty “to growin grace. What, then, did our Lord intend by the vine- “dresser’s pruning the branches of the true Vine, that they might “* bear more fruit ? what, by declaring, ‘ Herein is my Father glorified, “that ye bear much fruit’? and by saying, ‘I have chosen you, and “ ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth Jruit, and that your “ fruit should remain.’? Surely, it is in vain to multiply quotations, “if this one chapter will not suffice to establish the idea of our “ deriving grace from Christ to make us holy. What is intended by “our ‘beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and being “ changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit “ of the Lord.’? “But it has been pleaded, that the Apostle affirms, ‘Of him are ‘* ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and right- “ eousness, and sanctification, and redemption ;’ and it has been urged, “that, as we readily admit of his being made righteousness by the “imputation of his righteousness to us, so he is made sanctification “also by imputation alone. We refuse to allow this inference. Christ “is made unto us wisdom, as he imparts wisdom to us; not leaving us ST TE I LT I EF NEI OO IE I 69 so as to please his Maker? The sober Christian replies unhesitatingly, “ Yes—the commands of “ to follow our own folly, and content ourselves that he is wise: he “is made uuto us redemption, as he has redeemed us from the curse “of the law, does redeem us from all iniquity, and will redeem us “from the power of the grave: and so he is made unto us sancti- “ fication ; as all our sanctifieation is effected by the power of the “‘ Spirit,—is chiefly effected hy viewing the evil of sin, as displayed “in his death, and the beauty of holiness, exemplified in his life; “and as we are constrained by his love to depart from iniquity, and ** devote ourselves unto God. Is not this enough to justify the lan-- “¢ guage of the text, without alleging, that, because he is wise, we “ may remain ignorant and foolish ; because he is holy, we may con- *‘ tinue unholy ; or because he is our redemption, therefore we may “‘remain under the curse of the law, the tyranny of Satan, and the “ dominion of death? “If there is no such thing as growth in grace, how are we to “account for the declaration of scripture, ‘The path of the just is “ like the shining light ; ’ “it advances and shall shine until the day “ be established.’? “If there can be no growth in grace in general, there can be no “¢ growth in any particular grace. No one can lay aside every weight, “nor the sin that used easily to beset him, though the Apostle was “so legal as to exhort to this. The covetous cannot become more “ generous, the proud more humble, the passionate more meek, “the discontented more resigned, the lover of strong drink “more sober, nor he that used to indalge himself in impurity more “ chaste. ‘ “ What, then, is the gospel good for? and wherefore was it ever “ published to the children of men? If it leaves us where it found us, “ and has no tendency to bring us into a state of voluntary subjection. “and conformity to God, we might as well have been left without the. “ knowledge of it, and have been made holy and happy at death. If “ the Physician of souls imparts no degree of spiritual health, why were. ‘ we invited to come tohim? If Christ does nothing, in this life, for “ those that believe in his name, why was his salvation made known at. “all? If holiness and happiness are at all connected, and no previous “ preparation was needfw, we should have attained both at death ;. God!” The Antinomian answers, No, or that which is equivalent, declares that these commands are not obligatory on believers.” —Has Christ con- firmed antecedent obligations to obedience, and superadded others which are more accordant with the second covenant? The Christian replies in the affirmative. The Antinomian answers “No;” and, as an advocate for a “free gospel,” denies obligation altogether.—If Christ, by his obedience unto death, has redeemed the believer: from the penalty of the law, does this lessen his obligation to obedience, and, in the practice of “ and, for the present, imputed glorification would do as much good “ as imputed sanctification. “ Really, one would think that some professors did not wish the “¢ Saviour to do any thing for them, but to iaivdlian from the fear “‘ of punishment and the trouble of obedience. They seem to have no “‘ conception that it is intended to insure the attainment of what the “¢ Westminster Divines have stated as the chief end of man; viz. his “ being inclined and enabled to glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever. “ They appear ouly to desire security from hell, and exemption from “ duty. ‘Wheu I sin, said a man whom I have seen, ‘I make Jesus “ Christ my pack-horse.’? Are you shocked at such a blasphemous ‘ expression? O beware that you do not listen to religious instructors “ who will teach you to do that practically, which you durst not thus ** coarsely avow. “If a man says, ‘I have been with Christ, I am already a Be- “ liever,’ I have an undoubted right to ask, What have you gotten “ from him? If you say, I have been long under the care of the Great “ Physician, and have attended to his prescriptions; I may well in- “quire, Are you any the better? Is sin become odious? Is the “ service of God delightful? Is the love of the world subdued? “ Are you learning to be meek and lowly in heart?” Serious Remarks on the Different Representations of Evangelical Doctrine. By Jonn Ryvanpd, D.D. Part II. ate 71 4 transgression, invest him with a panoply which the arrows of God’s indignation cannot penetrate? The Christian utters “No:” the Antinomian answers, “Yes,” and confides in the immutability of “the covenant.” From Christ having laid down an explicit code of laws, may the disciple oppose and vilify it? “No!” the Christian replies: the Antinomian on the contrary, answers “ Yes,” and as he says, so he does. Is the Christian . delivered from the penalty which his sins had merited, that he may now commit with impunity all kinds of iniquity? The Christian starts even at the suggestion, but the thorough and consistent Antinomian, triumphantly answers “Yes.” But here the laws of the land step in with their salu- tary enactments and happily restrain those whom the laws of God cannot. f This is a direful yet correct representation, which whilst it sends a pang through every pious heart, will cause “the enemy to blaspheme.” The fruits of this demoralizing faith are but too manifest. Nor let any suppose that the conse- quences charged on Antinomianism are incidental, and not inherent ; weeds that are iadle to spring up, and not the essential offspring of the soil. The retinue of disastrous effects, so justly ascrib- able to this excrescence, which true religion _ disowns, emanates at once from the system, which tends to abrogate the laws which preserve society 72 in a healthful state, and to counteract the bene- _ ficent tendencies of all those precepts which God has mercifully given for the guidance and good of man. The disposition of my mind is, to speak with great seriousness of professed ministers, however humble their pretensions, and to hear them with all the candour which is compatible with a paramount regard for truth. It was my desire to hear Mr. John Hawker, corrupt as I knew his doctrine to be, with a disposition to receive the scattered and insulated good which his hetero- geneous sermons might contain, but shall I be pardoned when J say, that on one occasion I found it no small effort to resist a smile. It arose from the manner in which the passage was repeated, “We are not under the law, but under grace.” It happened to occur where no explanatory break was allowed, and being thus hampered, he pos- sessed no other power of testifying his abhorrence of this horrible word, “law,” than by throwing an exuberance of all possible scorn into his manner of uttering it; which he most unusually but dexterously effected, by dwelling with a frown or rather scowl on the offensive word, and by uttering the other with smiling promptitude.— We are not under. the 1—a—ww, but under grace.” ! The virtue of sincerity cannot be questioned in Antinomians, when they express their determined 73 hatred of the Law. In opposition to such, how- ever, there was one (whose sims they delight to blazon, but not his penztence) who has said,—and his words have been adopted by the servants of the Most High, from his day to the present, and will be to the end of time,—“ Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in his Law doth he meditate day and night.” But the same inspired Prophet has further declared, what experience daily proves, “The ungodly are not so, but (most memorable words!) are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” It is cheering to recollect that these perverters of the truth; (in many important respects,) these blind leaders of the blind, cannot alter the ritual or liturgy of the Church, to which they are ob- ligated to attend in inflexible forms, and which in some measure counteracts the pernicious doctrines of the preacher. This observation was strikingly illustrated in the service of the day when I first heard Mr. John Hawker; which partly consisted -in the reading of the concluding verses of the 18 Antinomians would do well to take especial notice of one verse which reflects light on the true nature of that covenant into which Christians are brought; and that law which is to be eternally their guide. “For this is the COVENANT that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my LAWS into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” (Heb. viii. 10.) Where the heart does not love the Laws of God, it wants the one aly proof of participating in the covenant. 74 fifth chapter of Galatians. The reciting of this _ passage was no doubt a pungent exercise. The minister would willingly have turned to one of his favourite passages, so often disingenuously dissevered from their context. However harsh and uncourteous the declaration may sound in Mr. J. H.’s ear, he never yet understood the true genius of Christianity! May that spirit whom he has so often “grieved,” illuminate his mind, so that like’an ancient example, he, and those who resemble him, may become “preachers of right- eousness,’ and endeavour to counteract their destructive errors, before it be too late, and that with a zeal commensurate with their perception of “the more perfect way!” “Beyond all controversy,” there is a bleak, hard, unfeeling character in rigid Antinomianism, which is directly opposed to the philanthropic glow of human kindness; which quenches every disinterested and generous feeling, and promptsits — teachers to utter, in contemplating their brethren of the ministry, as well as Christians universally, “Stand off! for I am holier [in spiritual know- ledge] than thou.” They appear to insulate themselves from all unison in the common feelings which bind man to man, and are ever ready to say, with their characteristic uncharitableness, “Why should I love those whom the Lord has rejected?” —_—_—— Se ae en a —_ CE Te aT 1 76 “Who art thou that judgest another man’s “servant?” isa question which they despise, and scatter damnation around them with indiscriminate precipitancy.” The humane judge when im- peratively required to pass the last sentence of the Jaw on an abandoned criminal sufficiently testifies by the tremulous accent, that pity still lingers round his heart; but Antinomians send whole hosts to the regions of despair, it might almost be said, the whole family of man, with an unhesitating and unqualified fiat, which shows that the office they so arrogantly exercise is not uncongenial with their natures. But if the terrors of the law are faithfully to be promulgated (and assuredly they are) it becomes the child of humanity at least to feel compunction, and to drop one tear, as he repeats, “Why will ye die, O house of Israel?” It may be declared of Antinomians, that no sect, in any age, assuming the Christian name, ever manifested, like them, so insatiable an appetite for enlarging the borders of Perdition. Many of 49 An apology is even due to the serious reader whose mind has not been blunted by listening to the frequent and wanton use of those awful expressions, “Damned!” and “ Damnation!” which pass so lightly from the Antinomian’s lips, and with so little of the apparent realizing of their tremendous import. A just exhibition of their preaching, and their sentiments, cannot otherwise be conveyed ; but it might be,supposed that no preacher could utter such phrases, without " a pause and a feeling which indicated a sense, of how much was con- tained in an efernal banishment from Happiness and God. 76 them doom to “blackness of darkness for ever,” even all the advocates for the Bible and Mis- sionary Societies!!! I must again remark, the gospel was assuredly sent as glad tidings “to all nations,” but such is their portraiture of this divine dispensation, that when the equitable principle is recollected which our final Judge avows, as the basis of his govern- ment, that where much is given, much will be required, and, that those who knew not, will be beaten with few stripes, it becomes difficult to perceive how an Antinomian can represent the gospel as a blessing to man, on the grand scale. If those who have never known the truth, nor could know it, will be judged by amore lenient law than others, and be thrown on the sovereign mercy of that Being “who delighteth to forgive,” and if the millions who might have known the truth will be eternally banished from the presence of the Lord, and a few Antinomians alone compose the redeemed from among men, how can so re- stricted a Gospel and so limited a Saviour be regarded, even by Antinomians themselves, as the greatest boon of God to the world? In this comprehensive view, they must allow, that had the gospel never been proclaimed, it would have fared better with the many, but it seems, that to benefit their own miserable fraction of humanity, they represent the remaining family of earth as 77 being placed in circumstances which must entail on them everlasting death ! Antinomians possess a felicitous talent at eL= planing away all the injunctions and precepts of the Bible which they donot like. The adroitness which advocates display in their attempts (as it suits their purpose) to prove, or disprove, in- differently, any proposition, is “poor indeed,” compared with the conduct of Antinomians. Pleaders rarely blind themselves, thou gh they often confuse their hearers ; but Antinomians appear to be really persuaded that the Bible inculcates just what they wish it to do. It will be deemed almost incredible by the well-informed portion of the Christian world, that Dr. H. and his son, and the whole fraternity to which they are allied, should even now (escaped as we are from the twilight of the middle ages) confidently affirm, that there is no instance in the Old Testament, nor one example in the New, where invitations are addressed to any but to ‘the chosen,” (whom in their own peculiar lan- guange, they term “the beloved ones,” “the little ones, ) and that the prophets of old, and particu- larly Christ and his apostles, never entertained a thought of calling upon the fallen sons of Adam, generally, to repent, believe, and return to God. They deny that the Gospel is preached, through- out the whole of Christendom, by any but 78 themselves,” and at the same time entertain a plenitude of contempt for all ministers who inter- pret literally those holy words, which shine amongst the brightest gems of inspiration, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is 20 “¢ There were those in Birmingham, and other places, who would “ not allow that Mr. Samuel Pearce preached the Gospel. And if. by “ the gospel were meant the doctrines taught by Mr. Huntington, Mr. ‘* Bradford, and others who follow hard after them, it must be granted “he did not. If the fall and depravity of man operate to destroy his “ accountableness to his Creator; if his inability to obey the law, or “‘ comply with the gospel, be of such a nature as to excuse him in the “ neglect of either; orif not, yet if Christ’s coming under the law, “ frees believers from all obligation to obey its precepts; if gospel “ invitations are addressed only to the regenerate; if the illuminating “influences of the Holy Spirit consist in revealing to us the secret “* purposes of God concerning us, or impressing us with the idea that “we are the favourites of heaven; if believing such impressions. be “ Christian faith, and doubting of their validity unbelief; if there be “no such thing as progressive sanctification, nor any sanctification ‘““ inherent, except that of the illumination before described; if wicked “men are not to do any thing beyond what they can find in their ‘“‘ hearts to do, nor good men to be holy beyond what they actually “are; and if these things constitute the gospel, Mr. Pearce certainly “‘ did not preach it.—But if a man, whatever be his depravity, be ne. “* cessarily a free agent, and accountable for all his dispositions and “actions; if gospel invitations be addressed to men not as elect, nor “as non-elect, but as sinners exposed to the righteous displeasure of “* God; if Christ’s obedience and death rather increase, than diminish “ our obligations to love God and one another ; if faith in Christ be a *¢ falling in with God’s way of salvation, and unbelief a falling out with “it; if sanctification be a progressive work, and so essential a branch *< of our salvation, as that without it no man shall see the Lord ; then “Mr. Pearce did preach the gospel; and that which his accusers call ‘* by this name is another gospel and not the gospel of Christ.” ' FuULLER’s Memoirs of Pearce. p. 248. 79 athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Those who are encou- raged from these words, to scatter the seed, and to leave the “increase” to God, are termed by Dr. Hawker, “ Freewillers,” (so inevitably doom- ed to the bottomless pit!) and to require men to repent, and forsake their sins, and “to turn to righteousness,” he pronounces in the gross Anti- nomian phraseology, “ wooing the sinner.” # Dr. Hawker thus explicitly states his views of “the glorious gospel,” in one of his printed works. “Let it be supposed, for the sake of ar- “gument, that many of the seed of Esau are ‘‘ present when the gospel is preached, still, this ‘1s nothing to me. 1 do as I am commanded, “preach the gospel. But were I to go beyond “this commission, and offer, and persuade, and “strive, with fair words, to win and woo men to “believe, what is this but pretending to have “more mercy than God? and to invite all men, “indiscriminately, must include the people, 1 Dr. Warts entertained a very different view of the Gospel from Dr. Hawker, as will appear from the following extract. “The Gospel is not confined to one nation, nor one family, nor to “* one tribe and kindred of mankind, as the law of Moses was. ‘Go “preach the gospel,’ says our Lord, ‘to every creature.’ ‘Preach “repentance and wemission of sins, in my name, among all nations.’ “To the Jew first, but let not this grace be confined to them. Pub- “lish this blessed doctrine to the sinners also among the Greeks “ and Gentiles. You that are afar off from God, even to the ends of “ the earth, ye are called to look unto Christ and be saved.” 80 “against whom the Lord hath said, ‘I will Have “indignation for ever!’” This is Antinomian- ism! And these are the doctrines which issue from the same desk, whence are heard the inimit- able Prayers of the Church! “The preachers of the Gospel,” Dr. H. says, (Name of the work withheld,) “find no authority to ‘“‘ make offers or invitations, in an indiscriminate “‘ manner to sinners in general; neither do the “ Scriptures furnish a single instance ‘where “ Christ and his Apostles have ever made offers “but to the people of God.” Every part of the Bible invalidates this declaration. One of the most prominent opposing texts is the explicit charge of our Saviour to his disciples, “to go forth into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Could it be believed that a preacher possessing any measure of sense and seriousness, could possibly give so sophistical an explanation as Dr. H. has given, of the above imperative command? Dr. Hawker says, (in one of his printed works.) “The Lord commissioned “his Apostles to go out into all the world, and “ preach the Gospel to every creature, but their ‘‘ ministry was still confined to preach to all, not “to invite all; to hold up Christ, not to offer “‘ Christ!” What must be the desperate nature of that cause which relies for support on such reasoning as the above ! 81 Dr. H. goes on to say, in condemnation of addressing sinners, “Were it not for the awful- “‘ness-of the subject, a man might smile to hear “what very wooing, and winning words are made ‘‘ use of by them, (Ignorant Preachers) to gain on ‘the hearts of their hearers by human persuasion. “ Offers of Christ; yea pressing Christ upon the “ congregation are the chief topics adopted. And ‘sometimes from the great earnestness with “‘ which they have worked up their natural feel- ings to persuade, they enforce the present opportunity as if, should it be neglected, never ce ce “‘ another, perhaps, may be afforded them.”—“ Is ‘“‘ it not enough to make a man tremble to hear “men wooimg and winning all that come in. their ¢ ~ way!”!!! Instead of an Antinomian being (as Dr H. affirms him to be) “ a regenerated child of God,” had the above sentiments been expressed by an anonymous writer, it might have been sus- pected of him that his heart was as hard as the nether millstone. The Rev. J. Bidlake, of Plymouth, it in a well- written pamphlet, remonstrated with Dr. Hawker on the evil tendency of his work, and in one place affirmed that “it forbids all invitations to sinners to come to Christ. It discourages (he goes on to say,) even the declaration to them of what Christ hath done and suffered for sin.” Distinctions G 82 without differences are not worth making. Dr. Hawker does forbid all invitations to, sinners, as. the above melancholy extracts amply testify. He considers those whom he is pleased to denomin- ate uncalled sinners. as the dust under his feet, and “would never feel the least disposition to, declare - any thing to them, except that they are all repro- bates, doomed to inevitable and interminable destruction: Mr. Bidlake was therefore, as. most readers will think, completely justified in his as- sertions. But Dr. H. returned the following reply, ‘“‘ How any man, in the face of that. tract could deliberately write down, what in, the mo- ment of writing he knew to be a falsehood (and a falsehood impossible to escape detection) is to me astonishing.” * ‘To doubt” of all that Antinomians afhrm: is, with them, “to incur certain damnation.” In their decisions, there are no mediums and half- 2 The following is the Rev. J. Bidlake’s, character of, Anti- nomianism. ‘Were I required to give a definition of ancient and “modern Antinomianism, in separate words, I should speak of it, as an amalgama of Irreligion, Ignorance, Conceit, Pride, Obstinacy, “‘ Selfishness, and Cowardice. It is moreover Clamorous, Morose, “¢ Scornful, Insolent, Petulent, Revengeful. It is the hot-bed of dis- “cord, and the most effectual promoter of. religious feuds. It is a “< Diotrephes in the house of God, and,a tyrant in the domestic circle, “« Where it attaches to dispositions naturally amiable, it converts “them into bad ones; and it makes those that are naturally bad, “ intolerable.” 83 measures. Dr. H.’s adversaries are roughly dealt with, for he thus says, (in rather kitchen lInagery) “ Upriseth the proud, unhumbled heart of man, “in boilings of the most fiery wrath; and the “scum of bitterness runs over the pot of his [its] “malignity, in deadly displeasure against the jus- “tice of ‘the decrees.’” But why this perpetual reference to “the decrees?” Does it accord with the spirit of the /iturgy; with the practice of men, most eminent for wisdom and piety; or with the examples of the inspired writers? Dr. H. knows that it does not, and yet with a blind adherence to his own perverted, and morbid pre- dilections, he delights to dwell, unceasingly on “ the decrees,” as though the joys of “the saved” were to be augmented in exact proportion to the magnitude of “the lost.” It may not be inappropriate to offer in this place, a few remarks on the Decrees of the Anti- nomians, to which they so habitually direct their hearers’ attention, that almost all other subjects, compared with it, appear to be estimated by them as merely adjuncts, accessaries, and inci- dentals in religion. It is beneficial at all times to remember that the footsteps of the Almighty are in the great deep, and that thick darkness is his payilion. Shall children of the dust attempt ‘to explore this impenetrable recess, and oppose their Maker, by searching out his inscrutable 84 designs? Are not these daring spirits told, “ Secret things belong to God.”? but certain rash and undisciplined minds, wi// scrutinize into these “secret things,” and essay to tear away the veil which invests the future. The Almighty has had, has, and will continue to have, a people on earth, (those who fear his name) to increase, till “all flesh shall know the Lord.” Who they, at present, are, he knows, though we do not. But the deep-rooted pride and selfishness of the human heart is glaringly evidenced in the modest ‘application which Antinomians give of these ‘Decrees. They are all appropriated to themselves, in the amplest sense. They declare that eee must be their por- tion: that Christ died alone for them. With ineffable presumption, they affirm, that they, (many of them) without conformity to their Divine Master ; without obedience ; without that renew- ing of the mind, derived from true faith, which consists in abhorring and forsaking sin and aspir- ing after higher degrees of sanctification; that they, with enmity to God’s righteous law in their hearts, and the mark, often, of Cain in their fore- head; that they were decreed to eternal life, while at the same time, they denounce, as perverters of the gospel, and heirs of perdition, all classes of Christians, both preachers and hearers, who fall short one iota of their own infallible standard ! 85 We know nothing of the purposes of the Su- preme, in permitting the desolations of War, Pestilence and Famine; nor of his inscrutable ends, in allowing the successive “ visitations of Error ;” yet we are bound to implore that God would avert the one, and repress the other. The whole Christian World repeats, at this moment, ““ For the peace of the Church ; for the honour of Christianity ; for the good of souls; when will TIME be ordained to trample down the fearful An- tinomian Heresy, with the many less pestilent ones which have preceded it? Hasten it, O Lord! in thy time!” Antinomians discover, a stern unre- lenting inveteracy ; an intolerance; an ardour of sweeping denunciation, which really suggests the idea,—that they are afraid lest the Almighty should be too merciful ; lest the “‘ Besom of De- struction ” should be foo inefficiently swept: and if they do err in their estimate of the saved, they appear to desire, that that error should lie on the side of Vengeance ! , And here I must further remark, that whoever has attended to the preaching of Antinomians must often have been struck with their habitually vulgar images and language. Refinement is with them, it might almost be supposed, a mark of reprobation. Dr. Hawker, on one occasion, when addressing his audience, on the preparing of their hearts for the reception of the truth, ex- 86 claimed, “ You must turn out all your trumpery, and not leave so much as a bench for God Al- mighty to sit down upon.” This illustration, his flock, no doubt, thought marvellously grand. The image, it must be admitted, has the com- pound merit of being clear, and comprehensible to the meanest capacity, but a doubt may be entertain- ed whether there may not have been some in his congregation, whose tastes were not quite so abased as to confound this vulgar profanity with the language of reverence and religion. But Dr. H. himself, is occasionally surpassed by some of his less presuming brethren. One Antinomian dissenting minister at Plymouth, (in whose meeting-house Dr. H. himself is often found, when the hopeful Cornish Youth preaches, on a week-day, or that leviathan of Antinomian- ism, the Rev. S. E. Pierce of London ! Gamaliel sitting at the feet of a brother Gamaliel !) some- time ago affirmed that ‘‘ Christ having paid his ransom, it was not in the power of God himself to keep him outof heaven.” This is something like the familiar and impiously speculative language of Leibnitz, in his controversy with Dr. Clark, who said that “it was not in the power of God to make two things exactly alike, as he would, in that case, be at a loss which to place here, and which there!” A gentleman, also, of scrupulous integrity, asserts, in a letter, now before me, that 87 happening, when in Lincolnshire, to stray into an Antinomian place of worship, he was “ unspeak- ably shocked at the gross and wanton familiarity with which the minister addressed the Most High in prayer.” Amongst other expressions, equally revolting, he said, “Lord, thy children have been asking bread of thee, and some of them complain that thou hast given them hard, stale bread, that would almost break their teeth to eat it. We must have bread to-night, fresh baked.” It is very necessary to premise, that many who casually attend the preaching of Antinomians, may possibly express surprise, that some of the worst features in their discourses, here exhibited, should not have been noticed by themselves. As. the subsequent day, however, cannot always be judged of by the morning cloud, so the direction which the discourses of Antinomians may receive, cannot, with certainty, be calculated upon, either by hearer, or speaker. Sometimes the current is wild as a mountain torrent; at other times it bears the less offensive aspect of sleepy dulness; and at other seasons it may be endured. The Anti- nomian monster, it must be recollected, in certain moods, only peeps out of his den, but, on other occasions, he stalks forth, amid broad day, in all his native deformity. There are undoubtedly to be found, in the dis- courses of some of these ministers, certain detached 88 paris, unexceptionable in themselves, and, occa- sionally, such as might excite the impartial hearer’s approbation,” but the following remark, I wish > If any Antinomian were to be excepted from this acknowled g- ment it might perhaps be made in favour of the late Wm. Hunt- ingdon, (who denominated himself—“Coal-heaver, and Prophet of the Lord.”) His preaching I well remember, and it might fairly be termed, A compound of rant and perversion of Scripture. The following most just memorial of Huntingdon has been given by Dr. Ryland, whose friends will never accuse him of dealing an uncharitable measure to any man. (See two pamphlets by Dr. R. Serious Remarks on the Different Representatiuns of Evangelical Doctrine. Parts I. IT. Which should be read by all who feel an interest on the question of Antinomianism.) ** But at length, deliverance from the Law began to be broached ‘“‘ with unblushing confidence, by aman who arose from a very low “ situation in life, and drew many disciples after him. His positivity, “ his volubility, with abundance of low wit, and abuse of other minis- “* ters, acquired for him a considerable degree of popularity, though “ chiefly among the ignorant and illiterate: while he hada knack of so “ connecting detached sentences of scripture, without regard to their ‘original import, as to make them appear to prove whatever he “‘ pleased. His profligacy before his supposed conversion would have ‘“‘ been no evidence that it was not genuine; but his effrontery in “ relating it afterwards, in the most ludicrous and jocose expressions, ‘‘ must go far towards invalidating it: especially, since, after he had “ left off the indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, no man seemed more “completely under the dominion of the lusts of the. mind. Pride, ** arrogance, and malignity, indulged for many years, without the least “ semblance of jealousy lest he should carry them too far, in any case ‘¢ whatever, are as inconsistent with all the ideas I can form of a ““¢Saved Sinner,’ as lewdness or drunkenness. This man I never “heard cr saw, though I have read many of his writings, and have “* beeu shocked to see such a mixture of vaunting confidence as to his “‘ own safety, and rancorous bitterness towards every man who did not “treat him asa prophet of the Lord. WhenTI refused to surrender “my pulpit to this Ishmaelite, he printed a pamphlet, in which he *‘ charges me with shutting his master out of the pulpit, by shutting 89 particularly to be regarded. When these approx- imations to truth and soberness do occur. rey are “ out him; and says, ‘Two clerical gentlemen at Bristo] treated me ““¢ without any just cause, just as Mr. Ryland has done; but it did not “€ pass unresented: both of them are now no more.’ There is no “ doubt that he refers to Mr. Hoskins and Dr, Caleb Evans, in this “ passage; and, in another place, alluding again to my honoured “ predecessor (Dr. Evans,) he says, ‘I would have Mr. Ryland take “care how he calls my gospel a pernicious notion; lest like the “great Doctor at Bristol, God take away his speech, and then “his breath.” ** Had it pleased God to remove me from this world, at any period “‘ between the year 1791, and the death of this man, no doubt he would “ have added my name to the list of those, who were struck dead for “ not receiving him. But, verily, his anathemas excited no fear in my “mind. Itis not my province to judge individuals, any farther than “Tam authorized by our Lord’s rule, ‘ By their fruits ye shall know “them;’ but no pretensions to faith can afford me the least satisfac- “tion as to the safety of that man’s state in whom I can discern no “‘ semblance of penitence, humility, or godly jealousy; and whose ‘“‘ preaching has no tendency to produce either of these essential “‘ graces, in those that admire it. . “‘ This man is now gone, but his writings remain, an awful monu- “ment of the pride, censoriousness, and malignity, which may “ sometimes be connected with a distorted and mutilated gospel. ‘¢ Many others, inferior to him in their talents, imbibed similar sen- ‘‘ timents, and, as far as they were able propagated them ina similar “ manner. Dogmatical assertions, daring appeals to heaven, virulent “ abuse and low wit, are the weapons of their warfare. One man “‘ who did considerable mischief in the connexion in which he was “ for some years employed, after denying that the believer was in any ** sense under the law, was asked, ‘ Well Mr. Bradford, would it bea “sin for you to stab me to the heart?’ He replied, ‘It would bea ‘* breach of the law of the land, and I should be justly condemned to “ die.’ ‘But would it be a sin in the sight of God?’ ‘I do not choose ‘* to answer that question,’ was the rejoinder. ‘“‘ How lamentable is it, that any professors of evangelical religion, “ can be seduced by such men; and even by those, whose lives have most 90 extraneous, and harmonize not with their associ- ates. They are parts which derive all their value on account of standing separate from, and aban- — doning the true Antinomian principles. In some few of Dr. Hawker’s Tracts, the Antinomian spirit is so far repressed, that they might with little hesitation be placed in the hands of the thought- less, or the serious; but in these very instances it would require neither effort, nor ingenuity to point out the most glaring incongruities between the same Dr. Hawker, at two different times. His “Sermons ” also, as well as his “Commentary,” exhibit the same contradictions, as an universal feature. If we did not know that Dr. H.’s mind was incapable of duplicity, he might almost be ‘suspected of occasionally adopting the language, and expressing the sentiments of sounder Divines, for the mere purpose of inculcating Antinomian- ism, on other occasions, the more effectually. Much of the language of Dr. H.’s writings and oral discourses, (as an Antinomian) he has no right to use. Such parts are wholly at variance with his “ scandalously agreed with their Antinomian sentiments! Yet, in “ how many instancés has this been the case! And how have hearers, ‘‘ whose own conduct has been disgraced, by covetousness, intempe- ** rance, and the indulgence of bitter passions and lawless affections, “* got comfort under the ministry of these unhappy men, and buoyed ** themselves up with an unscriptural confidence of their own safety, “‘ which no arguments of others, no sins of their own could abate!” Dr. RYLAND. 91 system; they form, there can be no doubt, the strong integuments which bind many to his mi- nistry, and imperceptibly reconcile them to errors, which, but for their union with these sounder parts, would excite their prompt abhorrence.“ Where is the consistency of sometimes expressing cold approbation of holiness, or feeble condemnation of sin, when their hearers know, and are so often explicitly taught, that holiness and sin are’phan- toms, designed to scare alone the unilluminated ; or, in different words, that those who call them- selves, or who are called “the chosen” are neither % <¢ But what in our estimation, is the most perilous feature of the “ case, is this; That these teachers have a certain admixture of real “ Christian truth, which both renders their statements deceptive, and “the exposure of them critical and invidious. They invade, with “ the weapons of an unholy warfare, the most sacred sanctuary of ‘‘ religion; where, if ever we meet, we desire to meet as friends, and “ Jeast of all to disturb that holy place with the uproar of conflict. “ Upon such ground we are taken by surprise, and, when we least “ expect it, we find the spirit of Antinomianism lurking to assail, and, we “may say, to stab our principles. In appearance, its Preachers offer “the grace of God which bringeth salvation.’ We expect them to “ proceed with their instructions, ‘ to deny ungodliness and worldly “lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.’ Our ears are opened, and our hearts warmed towards that “ Saviour, ‘ who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all ‘iniquity, and purify to himSelf a peculiar people, zealous of good “ works.’ But what after alldo wehear? Ofa Saviour indeed, ‘who “ gave himself for us,’ but it would seem only that he might purchase “us an entire impunity for all iniquity, and that he might sanctify to “himself a people by no means zealous of any good work.” CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, Nov. 1823, 92 the better, nor the worse, whichever prevails, nor less sure of ultimate happiness.” _ It must be conceded to Dr. Hawker, that, in his own way, he preaches some of the doctrines of Christianity, but the evil is, that with the silver and gold, he combines so much wood, hay, and stub- ble ; and it is this circumstance which entails on Dr. H.’s preaching such ruinous consequences, and makes his Church a focus, from which Anti- nomianism extends in all directions. The re- flecting reader will determine whether such sentiments as have already been disclosed, and such as will be, hereafter, can be introduced into any discourse without contaminating the remain- der, and effectually counteracting any benefit which it might otherwise be calculated to effect. The good which Antinomians do by their preach-. ing, is equivocal, while the evil they do, is certain, subtile, and incalculable. Every congregation, within miles of Plymouth, may progressively, * Light and Darkness cannot agree. One of the Plymouth Anti- nomian Clergymen, went recently to hear a neighbouring Clergyman preach (an enlightened and pious Minister, who has long been dis- tinguished for administering faithfully the word of truth, and whose Congregation evidence, by their hearts and lives, the influences of genuine Christianity.) Upon coming out of the church, the Antinomian contumeliously remarked —“ The next time Mr. preaches, there ought to be chalked on the door, “ Mangling done here!” This isa tri- fling circumstance, except as it marks the contemptuous spirit which Antinomians uniformly display toward all Ministers who are not included in their own narrow circle. 93 and increasingly, expect to have its harmony interrupted by Antinomianism, that inveterate foe, to scriptural truth, peace, and order, unless the “Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against it.” | Dr. H. declares, that from the first moment hzs statement of the gospel is received, the proselyte is as full of holiness and the divine favour, as he ever can, or could be, should he live to the age of Methuselah ; and that he has for ever entered into a region, too elevated for sin to inflict harm. He is at once rendered independent of the shafts of Satan, though perchance wearing his livery, and acting as his slave; and let the smatterer in reasoning determine whether all these, and many other equally direful consequences, do not . necessarily result from denying the possibility of all increase in conformity to Christ ; the existence of progressive sanctification ; and, that the specu- lative admission of this corrupt creed is inalien- able, and a certain passport to heaven. The enactment of a human law, which might be broken without penalty, would be nugatory. Such laws, as has been justly observed, would amount to nothing more than advice: and yet Antinomians affirm that after ‘adopting their “ faith,” the divine law may be violated, and the _ Lawgiver thereby insulted with impunity, from the incapacity which exists in 1S?v, either to 94 destroy their peace, or to endanger their state. But this privilege extends not beyond the fol- lowers of Jokn Agricola; all other sinners belong to a different community, and will infallibly expe- rience “ judgment without mercy !” “ O house of Israel, are not my ways equal ? are not your ways unequal? saith the Lord.” It may often have occurred to the reader, what a mangled Liturgy the Church would have, if Antinomians possessed the power of remoulding. it, according to their enlightened views. This sublime amalgamation of all that is pure and elevated, under their influence, would soon crum- ble into atoms. Would Antinomians tolerate so heretical a sentiment as that which appears at the very opening of the service, where the Almighty is represented as not willing the death ofa sinner, but rather that he would turn from his wicked- ness, andlive? Would they endure for a moment such un-antinomian heresies in the litany as the following, which ignorant Christians so heartily extol? “ That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men.”—“‘ That it may please thee to turn the hearts of our enemies.”—“ That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred.” &c. &c. Had an Antinomian Clergyman been admitted into that high convocation, which met to deter- mine on the expediency of revising some parts of 95 the liturgy, in order to promote a more general subscription, we may readily conceive of such interchange of sentiments as the following. Antinomian.—I have several objections to the forms of prayer which have hitherto been adopted, as well as to many doctrines of a “ damnatory” nature which have crept into the service through the zgnorance of the first Reformers. One of the Bishops. Hold sir! A. Well my lord, if truth shocks your preju- dices I will endeavour to preserve silence till I reach my own pulpit and parlour, where every thing I say is received as it should be. B.—Name your objections. I am rather de- sirous to know your precise sentiments. A.—I object, my lord, in the first place, to the prayer which supplicates for “all classes and conditions of men.” Our prayers should not extend for any beyond ‘the chureh,” that is “the chosen.” All others are the sons of Esau, the children of Amalek, the heirs of perdition, who will all soon perish in the lump. B.—To what else do you object ? A.—I most decidedly object to the declaration that God “willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he would turn from his wickedness and live.” ‘Poor Peter” was wrong in this declara- tion, as | will undertake to prove. But admitting him to be correct, I will pledge myself to shew 96 that the interpretation “ Zenorant Preachers” put upon this passage is altogether wrong. My lord, half the world are running mad ; as I could easily demonstrate. I abhor Schism. If every body saw with my eyes there would be perfect unity in the Church: and they must so see, or they will never reach Heaven. B.—Are your present sentiments sii they have always been ? , A.—No my lord, I have often Hashes my views, and may again, but | never change with- out good reasons; and reasons which are strong enough to satisfy me, ought to satisfy all others. B.—To what else do you object? A.—I object to such bitter denunciations against Sin. Sin cannot hurt the chosen. “ Shall the unworthiness of the Church frustrate God’s designs?” “Sin is a good thing, it keeps the Christian down.” ‘‘ A sinner is a sacred charac- ter”! What has a believer to do with the rubbish of ordinances? “By our transgressions Christ is magnified.” ‘We cannot be too great sinks of iniquity to be saved, provided our faith be right.” The best of us is as bad as the worst Devil in Hell, and we shall never be one whit better till we reach Heaven. B.—In order, sir, to open your eyes, we will give a syllogistic form to this sentiment of yours, respecting Sin. A@qor. It is lawful and com- 97 mendable to practise a good thing. Minor. Sin is a good thing. Conclusion. Therefore it is law- ful and commendable to practise Sim. But perhaps you will call this “ Logic,” with which you have nothing to do. | A.—My lord, I dislike rh as you suppose, that hampering thing called Carnal Logic. Ihave renounced it ever since I came to years of matu- rity. It has done much harm in the world, as I could easily prove. My lord I am broad awake, and (though some question it,) “highly taught.”*° B.— What else do you dislike ? A.—I must express my abhorrence, once more, of that prayer which implores the Almighty io have mercy upon all men. “Shall we pretend to have more mercy than God?” Exeept a few of our way of thinking, the whole world, including men falsely called Christians, (those who profess to be converted, and yet know nothing of Anti- nomianism,) will be eternally damned ; and these are they for whom we are commanded “ not to pray.” % It is current amongst the Plymouth Antinomians, to distinguish each other by the phrase, “highly taught.” Such an one, they say, is highly taught, according to the progress made in the antinomian mysteries.— Some time ago, a neighbouring Clergyman was prevailed on to supply an Antinomian church, in this district, when, as he was in the vestry, and just about to enter the pulpit, the Clerk came up to him, smooth- -ing his hands, and looking very significantly, and said, ‘You must take care, sir, what you say, for we are all highly taught here!” H 98 B.—To what else do you object? | A.—TI object to the favourable opinion enter- tained of infants. The infant children of “the chosen,” will be saved, when they die, but we can have no hope for others. When Abraham inter- ceded for Sodom, he was told that the city should be saved for ten righteous, but there were of ten righteous, which proves that children are not in- cluded, for there must have been many children there.” My lord, there are innumerable Children in Hell, “not a span long,” as every Antinomian well knows. | | B.—Of what else do you disapprove ? A.—I strongly object to that Article which rather discourages the preaching on absolute Election and Reprobation; and am of: opinion that these doctrines ought to be made the ground- work and summum bonum of every sermon, and that they cannot be too often, nor too strongly enforced, whatever other subjects are neglected.: This deficiency is the great fault of the Homilies. B.— Do you know, sir, who composed these homilies?” A.— That is nothing to me.” B.—I ask you again sir, Do you know who composed these homilies? | 7” This sentiment is current among the Plymouth Antinomians, and is justified BY THIS ARGUMENT! © 99° A.—Yes, my lord; Cranmer, and the rest of them. Men who might have learnt true religion from many a Pauper in my congregation. Ge+ nuine Antinomianism was not understood in their, day, and to which that verse evidently applies. “The mystery which hath been hid from ages, and from generations, but which is now made manifest to his saints.” Saints, in the original, must mean Antinomians. B.—Are these the whole of your shidetions™ A.—No, my lord. I object stronely also to the perpetual recommendation of good works, with which the service is crowded. It may lead many hearers astray. But I forgot, these are all extracts from the Epistles and Gospels. B.—Have you any further objections? A.—Yes, the creeds do not go far enough to please me; particularly the Athanasian. J have one in my pocket which I should be glad if you would adopt, as a substitute. It will neither disgrace the Prayer-book nor the writer. Shall I read it, my lord? B.—No sir. If you have other objections, state them. | A.—I utterly dislike the earnest invitations which the service gives to sinners. It is the arrogance of man dictating to the Almighty, and a daring infringement on the sovereignty of God. If they are to be saved, they will be saved. 100 It almost makes one smile to hear these impas- sioned addresses. Ignorant preachers use the most wooing and winning words, to press Christ on their congregations, as though, should they lose that opportunity of recommending the Saviour, no other might ever occur. It is enough to make one tremble to hear ministers invite thus, all who come in their way. Ww ” gkapahial duties never to be enforced? A.—My lord, those who are ignorant of the gospel, are always recommending doing, as a test, they say, of Faith. These are beggarly elements. My doctrine is, do nothing. But whether I do, or not, is optionai. Slaves may be obedient. The chosen are free. jn B.—Do your objections extend still further? A.—Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. My principles do not allow me to approve of the form for confirmation; of the form for baptism; the ad- ministration of the sacrament; and, particularly, the form for the burial of the dead, where I am obliged to express hopes for the ‘Children of Esau.” B.—Pray sir, did you ever swear your assent to the Thirty-nine Articles, and your conformity to the Rubric of the Church! oe pbs A.—Yes.” But if you do not make all these alterations,—I would not belong to it, if I could help it. 2 101 o 5.—Sir, the church is disgraced by such men as you are. You ought never to have entered within its pale, or if your views were changed subsequently to your entering, you ought mow as a conscientious man, to renounce your pulpit, and not to undermine, by your heretical sentiments, not the Church only, which you have sworn to sup- port, but Christianity in every legitimate form. A.—But you know, my lord, we must live. .. B.—Then, sir, live by the sweat of your brow, or by some honest calling. I repeat again, you are an utter alien and dissentient from the Establish- ment; nor shall I further answer your impieties, except by saying, that our beneficent church, emanating from the scripture, “Condemns your spirit, and disowns your creed.” - The divine sentiments before noticed, in the litany, with numerous others, would soon vanish, if Antinomians possessed the ascendancy in eccle- siastical affairs, and yet the ministers of this creed, standing in their desks, repeat these passages, through hard compulsion, apparently, with full con- currence, but the moment they are unloosed from their trammels, they often launch their thunders against them; and thus denounce in their sermons, what they had sanctioned in their prayers! Antinomianism teaches its advocates to cast a revolting look on almost the whole human family. This is particularly exemplified, with respect to 102 children. Our divine master endearingly said, “ Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” He placed his hands also on them, “and blessed them.” But an Antinomian, who cannot bless his hearers, at parting, and who believes that tender babes, expiring in their infancy, (their parents not being Antinomians,) must become the everlasting associates of “damned spirits,” his heart can have no affection for children. The Christian on the contrary, in whose breast benevolence must pre- vail, when he beholds by the way-side, in his occasional journeyings, a group of village chil- dren, rosy, cheerful and animated; uncapped and unshod, enjoying their existence, and thereby unconsciously praising their Maker; when the good man passes by, and notices (though unno- ticed) the eye that flashes momentary Joy ; with the whole assemblage, earnest, and happy; the elder guiding the sports, and the younger looking on, at safe distance, with contemplative gladness; the good man, in such a moment, lifts up his heart to the Father of Mercies, and blesses the children, and ejaculates a prayer that they may be kept from the snares of an evil world, and be brought, finally, to know and love their Saviour. But here comes the Antinomian. His eye is fixed, and his brow is knit. He looks askaunt at the sportive infants, and recognizes in them “the children of 103 Esau, against whom the Lord hath said I will have indignation for ever.” He knows that not ene in a thousand will adopt the Antinomian ereed, so that he is safe in the calculation, that not one out of the twenty sportive infants before him, can be other than ‘“‘reprobate;” not affecting therefore to feel ‘more, mercy than God!” he mutters, [ had almost said, a curse, and passes on. _ An Antinomian Clergyman declared to a friend (from whom I received it,) “If I thought my own children did not belong to ‘the chosen,’ I should regard them no more than the dust under my feet”!!! A creed which thus counteracts the strongest feelings of nature, must be essentially vile. Antinomians respect neither the words, nor the example of the Saviour. Christin his human capacity, when asked, respecting some of the secret designs of Jehovah, repressed the pre- sumptuous inquirer by saying, ‘But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in’heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” But Antinomians who are ‘“‘the wise,” and with whom “wisdom will die,” see through the “dim obscure,” and, abandoning conjecture, pronounce, at once, what. will be the eternal des- tination of themselves and all aroundthem. With a corresponding rebellion against God, they tole- rate, nay even applaud and justify sin; to oppose 104 which the whole artillery of heaven has been directed, from the commencement of time. Let Antinomians answer the following questions. 1. What expelled our first parents from Paradise? 2. What caused the Almighty to drown the world, when he saw that the imagination of man’s heart was only evil, and that continually? 3. With what was it, that the Almighty was dis- _ pleased, in the children of Israel, when he caused their carcasses to tiree in the . Wilderness? 4. What caused the Almighty to expel the idol- atrous nations of Canaan? 5. What excited the displeasure of the Almighty, when he threatened David by the mouth of “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me.”? and when David in the anguish of contrition replied, “TI have sinned against the Lord.”? 6. and, finally. What crucified the Lord of Glory? Was it not sin—the foe of God and man, which Antinomians cherish, and with which they will not part? Well may every Christ- ian exclaim with David, “Itis time for Thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy Law.” (Psa. cxix. 126.) To this verse Mr. Scott has subjoined the following com- mentary. “ They make void the Law of 105 « God, who deny its obligationand authority ; “ who obscure or explain away its meaning, ‘and who render it of none effect by their. “traditions, or by their lives. When these “evils become general, it is time for the ‘Lord to take the matter in hand, and by “his own power, to silence Infidels, Pro- “ fligates, Pharisees, and Antinomians.” Let those who have been wholly or partially seduced by men “who know not the Law,” and who are in the strictest sense “ lying in wait to deceive,” flee! as for their lives! and remember what an Apostle has said, The unrighteous shall not inherit the king- dom of God, &c. Gal. v. 19—21. What an outcry has been made, in all ages, about the three great foes of man ;—the World, the Flesh, and the Devil ; against which the ser- vants of God have watched and prayed and declaimed with unceasing earnestness, and which, after all, are proved, by Antinomians, to be con- cealed friends, with whom they may travel towards heaven with perfect safety and concord! Anti- nomians show, by very convincing arguments, (to themselves !) that the Prophets and Apostles were rather dark on this subject. Our old ‘“ionorant” divines used to inculcate, that, in - proportion as men advance in that meetness for heaven, which must be commenced on earth, they 106 acquire a holy susceptibility of conscience, a shrinking from the very appearance of evil ; but all this, our modern Lights prove to be mere “ Legality ;” a delusion which springs from not comprehending the true nature of Sin! that phantom which so often frightens Noviciates in réligion, but which properly understood is found to be a “ good thing.” There is'something so monstrous. in the tenets of Antinomians; tenets which are as unsanctioned by scripture, as they are adverse to the clearest reason, that, at the first view, a suspicion, might be entertained that nota hundred minds could be found, in our whole population, so abject in the scale of intellect. as to profess credence in them. But this would be found, on due con- sideration, to be a fallacious estimate on the mere basis of probability, if we had not previously known the fact. Antinomianism is preeminently suited to secure every evil bias of the heart. A profound knowledge of the human character, in- structed the’ Papists to insist, as primary articles of their faith, on Confession and Absolution. But these two pillars of the Romish Church, are reeds compared with the pedestals on which Antinomianism rests. The advocates of this latter creed address themselves, at once, to all the corruptions of our unrenewed nature. They first tell their followers that they are absolutely sure 107 of going to heaven, and finally, that all the sins that man can commit, will neither hurt nor hinder this their final happiness! The indulgences of Popery produce a feeble operation, compared with this sweeping panacea of Antinomians. The one merely affirms that the whole penalty of sin may be averted by confession and absolution, but the other arrives at the same result by a shorter process, and at the same time confers on its proselytes, perfect impunity in the perpetration of evil, by assuring them that Sim, however ag- gravated, is harmless in the Called, and can neither displease God, nor hazard in any possible degree, their certain attainment of heaven. Some readers may have heard of preachers, who are what are called, “ high in the doctrines,” but they may never have had the opportunity of listening to them. For the information of such individuals, I here give a brief extract from one of Mr. J. Hawker’s sermons, im his own identical words, which I took down at the moment, and which may be considered as a fair specimen of the doctrinal preaching of the general Antinomian school. The chief leaven of Antinomianism, wilh be found in the last sentence, on which the preacher “doth not now enlarge.” I may notice that Mr. J. Hawker, in his prayer, offered pre- -viously to the sermon, introduced the following notable expressions. ‘‘O Lord, if there be any ~ 108 of thy dear children, now present, who are in the 9] gall of bitterness, and the bonds of iniquity,’ ! &e.” ie | 8 The following is one of Dr. Hawker’s everlasting subjects, where the same thought is amplified. ‘‘ It is not a people, or any people ata “ peradventure, undefined, or unknown; but the very identical peo- ‘¢ ple, which the FATHER from everlasting gave to the Son; whom the ‘© Son betrothed to himself for ever; and undertook to redeem from the “ ruins of the fall, during the time-state of the Church upon earth; and ** whom the Hoty GuosT engaged to regenerate, and make willing in ‘ the day of his power. So that when the Shiloh was to come, and the “ gathering of the people was to follow that coming: all this arose, “ because, they were his people; not to make them his people, for that “ they had from everlasting been; and nothing could make them more “ so to all eternity. The Magna Charta of grace, had determined *‘ these things, in the ancient settlements of eternity. For the fall did “ not, because in fact it could not, do away the relationship, between ‘¢CuristT and his Church. The Church of Curist, was still the ‘¢ Church of Curist, amidst all her foul, and filthy, and debased state of “sin. The people that are now gathered to Shiloh, or in the generations. “ yet to come, will be gathered to Him; were, and are, as truly be- “longing to Him before they are gathered; as they are, after being “ gathered. Yea, the redeemed now in heaven, are not a jot more in “ the scale of relationship now they are there; than when below. For “ under all the leprous condition, to which sin hath reduced the “ Church; Curist was, and is, as truly her Head, and Husband; as << when originally chosen by the FATHER, she came up in the view of “ the divine mind, holy, and without blame, before him in love, Ephes. i. 4, “¢ For as the sweet love-song of Curist to his Church, expresseth it : ‘¢ Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. Song “ viii.7; so could notall the cataracts of sin, which deluged the Church “ at the fall, wash away the relationship, to CuRisT. One of Dr. Hs Tracts. It is by the same simple transition, that Antinomians affirm,— “The cataracts of sin, cannot now wash away their relationship to Christ !” ; | 109 EXTRACT FROM MR. JOHN HAWKER’S SERMON. | “The love of God is equally extended to us in our unconverted state. Men must receive Christ as a whole Saviour. Progressive holiness is no- where inculcated in the scriptures. In the time-state of our existence, there is nothing, (good or bad), that is new, or that was not expected. What God has decreed must inevitably come to pass. Not all the powers of heaven, earth, and hell, can separate betwixt Christ and his church. Never was the church, in the Adam-state, sepa- rated from Christ. God the Father never married the church. God the Holy Spirit never married the church. But the Son, he married the church.” God hath joined the church to his Son, and nothing, (good or bad) can separate them. This spiritual edifice was built in the councils of God. God’s will is the only rule of God's actions. It is said Enoch walked with God, that 29 In pursuing this figure, some Antinomians, “of the baser sort, 4 employ language which completely outrages decency. An intelligent friend heard a Munchester Antinomian preach at Cambridge, with a grossness on this subject, which any other congregation would have resented by excluding the Preacher, ever after from their pulpit. The utterance of any thing sacred, in combination with such men, is incongruous and revolting. ne ESs Dr. Hawker is more guarded. He only says. “It is not good for man to live alone; and not only is it not desirable that man should be . destitute of a Help-meet, but it is not good that the God-Man, Christ Jesus should be alone; a Church must be united to him.” ; 110 is, he had assurance. We may date our salvation before the limits of time. All was settled in the eternal and immutable decrees of God, so that we are not left on the foundation of our nature- bottom. I declare from reason, as well as scripture, that no one circumstance, (good or bad,) even the least, can take place in time, which was not decreed from all eternity, for if it were, the prescience of God would be impeached. Shall the unworthiness of the church, (that is, the sins of believers) frustrate God’s designs !” Can it excite wonder that. ears accustomed to such addresses, forced on them from Sabbath to Sabbath, in nearly the same words, should reject as unsavoury,’ all sermons of sound and sober import, founded on the model of the Great Head ofthe church, and his apostles? Congregations which have been once used to these violent. sti- mulants, like the eaters of opium, must go on with the dose. Their tastes can relish no other; nor ~ can they approve even of these any longer than they can hear the storm rattling without, and receive from their instructors assurances, doubly — assured, that they are, beyond a possibility of doubt, whatever their sins, “the chosen,” who must be saved, though an universe should be lost. They can contemplate the eternal destruction of all around them with composure, nor feel one wish “to warn the sinner of the error of his ways,” 11) while at the same time; the belief that they are safe, secures their own selfish, and sordid happi+ ness; but if a dowbt should cross their minds; from the stern voice of conscience, which is sometimes permitted to arrest the sinner, fortified as he is by: assurance, in the midst of his sins, and to show him that it is an evil and bitter thing to defy the laws and. threats of the Almighty, he sinks down, often into distraction. The discouragements. to» sinners are so great, and the confidence of final. happiness in Antinomians, so unconditionally se- cure, that despair is likely to be produced in the one case, and an awful presumption in the other, which ‘dries up the fountains of pity in the heart, and makes God absolutely, the author of all sin! The Mr. 8S. E. Pierce, before referred to, so admired by Dr. Hawker,” once said, from a Plymouth pulpit, “Some of our old divines used to write: in their books, at the top of their pages, ‘God the author of sin!’ and,” he subjoined, “they. were able to cope with their subject!” This is speaking out. This is, at once, the fiend unmasked. Antinomians are too fond of passing the bound of “what is written,” and of declaring, with un- warrantable confidence, and that, without even: * Dr. H. affirms of this gentleman that he is “ quite equal to himself.” 112 _ the process of hypothetical reasoning, what the Almighty will do. In the infancy of an eternal existence, it becomes finite creatures to be satisfied with being able to arrive at some few conclusions, respecting the nature of God, and his moral government. To expect more would be to anti- cipate the developments of Eternity, which after the procession of millions of ages will leave created minds at the commencement of their inquiries. It is important at present to know, among other truths disclosed. by the Bible, that God is infinitely pure and holy; that, “he cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man;” and if there be an hour of solemn retri- bution, to which we are hastening, when the secrets of all hearts shall be known, and God himself shall be Judge, what “rocks and moun- tains” will then be invoked, unavailingly, to screen his guilty -head, who ever did, or who now impiously dares to utter—‘‘ God the author of Sin?! | Mr. J. Hawker may continue unceasingly to preach his favourite doctrine of reprobation, but I would just recal to his recollection a portion of a certain wise and valuable Article, to which he once subscribed, by oath, but which may never since have attracted his notice. “For curious and carnal persons, lacking the ‘ spirit of Christ, to have continually before their. 113 “eyes the sentence of God’s predestination, is a. “most dangerous downfal, whereby the devil doth. “thrust. them either into desperation, or into “‘ wickedness of unclean living, no less perilous. “ than desperation.” * ! | The following is a brief specimen ‘of the dictatorial manner of Dr. Hawker, by which he often enforces his doctrines on his quiescent hearers, and to whom it comes with the potency of an Oracle.. “How dare any man get into the pulpit, and preach progressive sanctification? Whoever talks of progressive sanctification is guilty of high treason against the Majesty of heaven. I will mention a text, which shall tingle in the ears of such as hold this doctrine. ‘If any man preach any other gospel, let him. be accursed.’ It is a heresy little less than idolatry.” Dr. Hawker, is not even satisfied with denying the possibility of Progressive Sanctification, but proceeds so far as to say, that the Prophets of old, 31 With a very large proportion of Antinomian hearers, there exists, as might be expected, little discrimination; and this was rather ludi-. crously proved, about two years ago, when the Rev. Rowland Hill visited Plymouth. ‘This champion for the truth, boldly met the enemy at head-quarters, and exposed the Antinomian heresy, with a point and felicity whieh made many of its advocates writhe. Sundry attendants at the“ New Church,” followed Mr.-Hill very closely, and a friend having expressed, to one of the staunchest of these followers, some surprise that he could relish the preaching of Mr. H. the stray- disciple very promptly replied, “ I like.to hear Rowland Hill, because he preaches so much like our Doctor!” I 114 -and other eminent Servants of God, instead of having advanced in holiness as they drew nearer and nearer to their “Heavenly Inheritance,” absolutely retrograded and became worse! Dr. H's words are, (the title of the Pamphlet is not given) “Do the lives of Moses, Aaron, David, Jeremiah, Peter and Paul, furnish proofs of a progression in Sanctity, and not, on the contrary, most decided testimonies to the REVERSE!” : | I must now make one or two observations on Dr. H.’s mode of expounding Scripture. It may rather puzzle the “children of the simple” to deter- mine in what way the above verse applies to progressive sanctification: but Antinomians are the most distinguished annotators in the world. By a ratiocination peculiarly their own they can make the scriptures say just what they like: and what appeal is there from the unanswerable asseveration, “Ttisso.”2” Dr. Hawker says, “I delight to runup 32 On looking into the ‘Poor Man’s Commentary,’ we were not astonished to find the very small proportion borne by the practical “ to the doctrinal exposition of the Epistle of Galatians. But, would “our readers believe; would even Dr. Hawker’s admirers believe, *¢ that, upon the two following verses (v. 13, 14.) ‘ For, brethren ye “have been called nnto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to “ the flesh, but by love serve one another: for all the law is fulfilled in « one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ « The whole comment is as follows: (v. 6—15.) ‘Great part of what is “ ¢ here said hath particular respect to the church of Galatia, for the “¢ time then being. On these subjects I ALWAYS USE SHORTNESS. + < And the many passages here and there interspersed in this paragraph 115 every subject to Christ.” There are others also who delight to trace Christ in the Old-testament scriptures, where he is fairly traceable, but there are many fanciful interpreters, who see more than ‘ they ought tosee. Asaspecimen of Dr. Hawker's talent at explaining prophecy, I heard him assert, that where it is expressed in the 139th Psalm, In thy book all my members are written,’ it clearly proves the choice which God has made of his church from all eternity. The following is also one of Dr. Hawker’s ex- planations of scripture. On one occasion he said, “ Recently, the Holy Spirit has taught me the meaning of this passage, ‘To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” ‘To do justly,’ is to acknowledge the justice of God in the condemnation of the wicked. ‘To love mer- cy,’ as displayed in the atonement of Jesus Christ, and I defy any man to walk more humbly with God, than the man who acknowledges this.” Dr. H.’s luminous view of the occult meaning of scripture was further evinced, by his comment on the 6th chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet “<< ¢ are so plainas to need no comment.’ If there were two verses in the “ whole Bible, which, more than any other, needed Dr. Hawker’s “ Jabours to fit them to his principles, they were the two in question. ‘¢ There is likewise no comment on v. 24: ‘They that are Christ’s have - 6 crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.’ Such disingenuous- “ ness, we are perfectly sure, needs no comment.” CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, Nov. 1823. p, 717. 116 says, “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me.” Now observed Dr. H. “I suppose you think the prophet is here meant, but no, no. It is the Lord Jesus who says, ‘Here am I, send me.’” * So also in the 28th chapter of Matthew, 6th verse, where the angel says to the women, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” “1 suppose you think,” said Dr. H. “ the angel is re- commending the women to look at the spot where the body of Christ lay. No, no, the angel means no such thing. He means to point out the Lord 33 An Antinomian, preacher of Manchester, distinguished, for his ignorance, as most of such men profoundly are, sometime ago, was discoursing on the text, “The hairs of your head are all numbered,” when he thus proceeded.— “‘ Most ministers would apply this, passage to the providential: care of God. But it is one of the strongest proofs in scripture of the doctrines of election and final perseverance. First: It is the head— the head of his body. Secondly: His people are the Hairs, for this the Apostle declares, They are the children of God, and if children, * Heirs.’ ”! The more impiously absurd an idea is, the stronger is its claim, with many, to. credence and admiration, An Antinomian preacher, near Plymouth, lately acquired great credit with his hearers, by the original illustration which he gave to the sentiment, that the Almighty does not regard the sins of Believers now ; and will not remember them hereafter. “ God,” said he, “has declared that he will cast all our sins behind his back,” and “with him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” “ Now,” he continued, with the high tone of triumph, “if God never turns, how can he see what is cast behind him2?”! “ Thou thoughtest me altogether such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee.” | | 117 Jesus, as lying in the eternal bosom of the Father. That is where the Son lay.” And yet these are the explanations, and this is the wild and vision- ary preaching,.on which an immense congregation habitually attend ; which delights the thousands of London, annually, and which hearers can mistake for the gospel of Jesus Christ! This gentleman is a voluminous interpreter of scripture, and one who can scoff, at Henry, Clark, and Scott. %4 Dr. Hawker declares that the deaths of the late excellent divines, the Rev. Andrew Fuller, and the Rev. T. Scott, were “awful deaths!” and of the latter he declares that, “there is a lie in the very first page of his Commentary!” The antipathy which Dr. H. feels to the memory of Mr. Scott cannot excite wonder, when it is recollected that Mr. Scott applied his powerful talents, through his whole Commentary, to expose the fallacies and confound the sophistries of Antinomians. It would be almost criminal] toname Mr. Scott without some passing testimony of respect; for more ardent and consistent piety has scarcely been found ; more sound theology, or amore judicious and dis- criminating mind: nor did his least constitutional excellence consist, in the happy subjugation of the imagination to the judgment, where fancy would have interfered with the stern solemnity of Truth. His whole life was regulated by Christian principles, which ¢heered him in adversity, tranquillized his spirit in perplexity, and preserved him humble ia those more prosperous circumstances with which a bene- ficent Providence brightened his last days. One casual interview with this venerable “Clergyman, confirmed the writer in the high estimation which his writings had previously inspired, and amongst other salutary lessons, impressed his mind with the conviction, that while most others talked of eternity, he realized its fearful import. “Many Expositors have’ done well, and “their works follow them,” but Mr. Scott, in no ordinary degree, has consoiidated the scattered excellencies of his predecessors, and has left an Exposition behind him, breathing the mind ‘of the Spirit, which will cheer and edify the church to the end of time. ‘ 118 On one occasion Dr. H. said, *“* At some sea- sons I have nothing to ask before the Lord ; David had not. He sat before the Lord, and had nothing to ask, and I am like him. These are the privileges of the children of God.” I the more particularly notice these expressions, as they incidentally illustrate one very important truth, and that is, the total incompatibility of all prayer, with the true principles o of Antinomianism. If good and evil must necessarily unfold them- selves, in their pre- -ordained order, with an uni- form development, like vegetable expansion, or the other laws of nature, hopes or fears for time or eternity, are at once extinguished, and man lies like an inanimate pebble on the shore, washed by the advancing and refluent wave. The Antinomian absolutely deprives himself of the grand essentials of Nore Can he confess his sins? “Confess sin,” he replies, “I rather rejoice in my sins, for thereby Christ is magnified in saving such “sinks of iniquity.” Another Antinomian has asked, “ What do they mean by that blasphemous doctrine, Sorrow for Sin? Believe and rejoice is all that we are called unto.” With petition, or supplication, the Antinomian, if he be consistent, can have little to do; neither with sedf-dedication, nor perseverance. Watchful- ness also he despises. The man who is afraid of falling may be circumspect, and watch ; or he 119 who regards the words of Christ may “ watch,” but the Antinomian is too certain of persevering to require any portion of vigilance and watchful- ness. | | | Can Antinomians pray for blessings on all men? When reciting the Liturgy, they can do it (though not very devoutly,) but on other occasions, the thought even excites a tempest in their breasts. Pray for the Children of Esau! Pray for the Sons of Amalek! Pray for the fulfilment of ancient predictions! Pray for a world lying in iniquity ! Impossible! Did ever Antinomian so far forget his creed? “Is thy servant a dog that he should do this?” Dr. H. says, “ It is enough to make one tremble to hear men wooing and winning all that come in their way !” With so grand a subtraction of the great ele- ments of Prayer, none can be surprised that the prayers of Antinomians should be s0 spiritless as they notoriously are. What a dwarfish forest must that be which presented to the eye, underwood, but no vigorous, and commanding ¢ree: and what must be the restrained and unimpressive nature of a prayer, divested of all confession of sin, and supplication to be preserved from it!—of all petition for strength to resist temptation, and to maintain a successful conflict with spiritual foes !—which presents a total absence of all consecration of soul to God !—which contains little thanksgiving, 120 no desires for perseverance; no solicitude for watchfulness, and nothing which ‘could be con- strued into a petition that the God and Father of his creatures ‘would have compassion on those who are ignorant, and out of the way.”! Such impoverished and meagre prayers, are truly Anéi- nomian, but they are not sound; they are not Protestant ; they are not Christian. With respect also to their Sermons, there is no class of Public Instructors, like the Antinomians, who so habitually preach in a circle. Tt may be said of one discourse, that it is almost the exact counterpart of another. The same affirma- tions perpetually recur ; the same thoughts, the same expressions, the same illustrations. Reject- ing that illimitable range, which the Bible offers, where the mind may for ever expand and lux- uriate, they appear to restrict themselves within certain prescribed bounds, and to regard every excursion beyond these limits as trespassing on the region of enchantment, full of pit-falls and death. The lovers of Nature behold fresh charms in each declining sun, and Antinomian Hearers experience the same freshness of delight, at every recurrence of all the old and established phrases and trains of ideas, with which they are so boun- tifully indulged by their Teachers, and which though they acknowledge them to be “stale,” are still, as they declare, “very sweet.” So accustomed 121 are Antinomian Preachers, to one confined track, that if they were to be deprived of a very few leading sentiments, particularly the harmlessness of Sin, the pernicious nature of what are called Missionary and Benevolent Institutions, tlie infléex- ibility of the decrees, the fallacy of progressive sanctification, and the sufficiencyof small faith (7n their own ‘flock, ) it might almost be apprehended, as it respects many of them, that a complete state of mental destitution would be the result. I have never yet heard ‘any one. sermon from :an. Anti- nomian which was not as unincumbered of taste and talent, as it evidently was of clear reasoning, and Biblical Truth. No one will deny to Dr. Hawker the possession of popular abilities, but perhaps very few whose hearts have been the receptacle of any portion of Christian knowledge, ever so neutralized those talents, and sacrificed so many “fair occasions” for effecting extensive good, as he has done, through his blind adherence to Antinomianism. For the latter years of his life; he has been be- stowing indefatigable labour on a barren soil, whereas had he been Jess confident.in himself, and with suitable humility have felt more deference for the Great Reformers, as well asfor the many Illustrious Theologians of succeeding ages, he might have reaped a rich harvest, and his name have descended among the consecrated worthies 122 who ranked high in their own day, and will be forever regarded as benefactors to the christian world. Now, however, owing to that fatal reso- lution which prompted him to turn back in the midst of his usefulness, and unaccountably to confound Heresy with Truth, he has become, (it 1s uttered with pain) as far as his religious sentiments are concemed, ‘‘a by-word,” and one like the children of Ishmael, ‘“‘whose hand is against every man, and every man’s hand against him:” so that the name of Hawker will be associated hereafter, with that of Huntingdon, and some others, who disturbed the peace of the church in their own day, and left behind them an accumulation of Heretical Documents as a disastrous legacy to after times. ois It may further be remarked, that if the prayers of Antinomians are frigid, and their sermons dis- tinguished for the lowest exercise of thought, their peculiar tenets, are no less remarkable for the powerful tendency they have to paralize the heart, and to repress every device which Benevolence can suggest for the good of man. On a friend expressing to a determined Antinomian, concern at the state of religious darkness in which the inhabitants of a particular district were in- volved, and venturing to hope that something might be effected for their illumination, “Oh!” replied the Antinomian, with the supercilious in- 123 difference for which the sect is distinguished, “If the Lord has a people there, they will be called!” And though they would have too much sense to reason thus on other subjects: though, if they were sick, they would not say, “Why send for a phy- sician? if Iam to be cured I shall be cured:” though if they had to build a house, they would not reject all means for effecting the object: though if they, or their children, were exposed to ship- wreck their cries would be as loud and fervent for helpas theirneighbours, yet the moment the eternal interests of perishing sinners are named, means vanish, as inapplicable to the case; their brows dart severity, and they deny the compassion to men, which they would not withhold from brutes. Antinomians appear to entertain a perpetual terror, lest the “sound of the gospel” should reach the ears of those whom they denominate “uncalled sinners.” But in opposition to such men, the most eminent, judicious, and pious Mini- sters, both inthe Establishment, and amongst the Dissenters, are those who discard from their minds all thoughts of the secret purposes of Jehovah, and, according to the universal practice of Scripture, address their hearers, as perishing im- mortals, who have sins to be pardoned, and souls to be saved. On the authority“of the Bible, they offer a free salvation to all who are willing to be saved in the way prescribed by God, without 124 money or price. They warn all around them, (with an earnestness which almost excites Dr. H.’s “ smile!” ) to flee from the wrath to come; to lay hold on eternal life; not to reject the proffered Saviour, and to remember that a man can give nothing “in exchange for his soul!” © Such Preachers are governed by the broad and be- nignant spirit of the True Gospel. They are the appointed Instruments for regenerating their race. They disclose the true message of God to man, and, from turning many to righteousness,” will shine hereafter, “‘ as the stars for ever and ever.” It is no grateful task to blazon the defects of any description of men, but that procedure which excites the feeling of repugnance, must, in some cases, be disregarded, on account of the benefit to be derived from describing the true consequences of corrupt sentiments. I am compelled therefore to remark, . that Se/fishness is another prominent feature in Antinomianism, the advocates for . which, form an indissoluble compact with the Sordid, the Unsympathizing, and the Indolent. General remarks are not meant to apply uni- versally. In a large body of men, there must necessarily be found, honourable exceptions, but it is contended, that the principles of Antinomians have a direct tendency to extinguish all enlightened, liberal, and philanthropic views. Our Saviour's test, ‘By their fruits ye shall know them,” applies, 125 generally, to these characters, with undeniable accuracy. Most commonly when any portion of natural benevolence, the fruit of earlier cultivation, exists in an individual who has been prevailed upon to adopt the creed of the Antinomian, with what dark and dense clouds must that flame contend, before it can burst through its invelop, and become .manifest. In the imeffectual struggle it grows fainter and fainter, till the emancipated Antinomian at length cries, ‘Why should I spend my money in support of any cause whatever? If it be a Good Cause, and ordained to prosper, it will. prosper, without my assistance. If I were the destined instrument for effecting it, it would be appointed also that I should feel a disposition to part with my money, but as I feel no such disposition, 1 infer that the honour of that appointment has devolved on some one else.’ Should another Cause, of un- questionable benevolence, require of the thorough Antinomian, not his money, but his time, (always more valuable than money,) he might very con- sistently say, ‘I do not see why personal incon- venience should be entailed upon me. I feel no impelling impulse, and therefore conclude that it was never designed that this Cause should be benefited by my exertions, and J will take care it never shall.’ Should another Antinomian be eisai to 126 contribute to the Bible Society ; or the Bartlett's Buildings Society ; or the Tract, or Missionary Societies, the same alienation to human wants, and sympathies would still distinguish him. The Antinomian not only might, but has absolutely said, ‘‘ What benefit can result from circulating the Scriptures, or Religious Tracts? It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the letter is dead. The Lord is a sovereion. He will choose his own time, and when the appointed time is come, diffi- culties will vanish. A nation will be born ina day. It is all will-seehing, and will-pleasing, and self-serving, and secret vanity. Men must continue :n their Nature-Bottom, and Old-Adam State, till the ordained time arrives. The Almighty does not want our feeble services. It is useless for us to attempt to urge on the day of the Lord.” Ano- ther Antinomian, in testimony of his utter contempt for all the. good, through human agency, which is now going on in the world, the writer heard de- clare, (as will hereafter appear,) “ People make a great noise about spreading Christianity, but it ‘5 no Christianity. Institutions and Societies are all busy in spreading false religion, producing, according to the appointment of God, a strong delusion that they might believe a lie, and so be all Eternally Damned.” \!! The Reader would now, doubtless, wish. to know something of Dr. Hawker’s present Curate, 127 Mr. Courteney. The last time I heard this Gentleman, hefurnished a genuine specimen of the Antinomian’s awfully corrupt sentiments, respect- ing Sin, and while these doctrines are avowed and propagated, it designates the whole Antinomian School as the enemies of God and man! | “God,” Mr. Courteney said, “suffers his people to sin that Christ may become precious to them.” “Do we not find,” he said, ‘that the best men of old were distinguished for their sins?” “ Believe not every one that preaches Christ.” “I have heard it declared from this pulpit, that the sinner is a sacred character, and in one sense he is so.” “Though Paul complained of his sins, and said, O wretched man that I am, yet he would not have it otherwise! He would have it precisely as it was! He would not wish it otherwise!” “Sin is good for the Christian.” “Itis a good thing, it keeps him down.” ‘Christians are apt to complain, that they are not like some others, but it is as it should be. Sin is good for them.” — “Perhaps what I have said this evening may comfort some poor tempted soul.” A true Anti- nomian mode of administering comfort to a guilty conscience, under a sense of sin; to tell him that sin is good for him! that it sie him down! mee it is a good thing! The ministers at whom Antinomians sneer on account of their evangelical faith, have acquired 128 more scriptural- views, and not only, know the hazard, but the wickedness. of offering. apologies, extenuations, and palliations for sin, that accursed thing which God hates; which, when persisted in, extinguishes light in: the soul, and, ‘according to the whole’ tenor of scripture, forms the only insur- mountable barrier to the favour of heaven. The ministers, who are rightly taught, direct the sinner, “who is, penitent,” to the Lamb, of God that taketh away the sin of the world. They warn him, to crucify no more the Lord, afresh, by, his trans- gressions ; and if he de washed, not to ‘turn again to folly.” Antinomian’ ministers do not. declare “THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD, -and the blood of their hearets zs on their heads! But to refer. to higher than the ‘Plymouth. authority, Dr. South thus speaks of Sin., ‘God has annexed two great “ evils to every Siz; in opposition to the pleasure “ and profit of it; to wit, Shame and Pain. He has “‘ by an eternal, and most righteous decree, made “these two, the inseparable. effects and conse- “¢ quences of siz; They are the wages assigned “to it by the laws of heaven; so that whoever “ commits it; ought to. account shame and pu ‘“nishment to belong to him as his rightful ‘inheritance. For it is God who has joined “them together by an irreversible sentence, and: ‘Cit is not in the MRO er or art of man, to. put ‘‘ them asunder.” . 129 I shall now give the Reader a specimen from one of Dr. Hawker’s sermons, taken down by myself, at the moment of utterance : * EXTRACT FROM DR. HAWKER’S SERMON. “We hear a great deal about Redemption. in this day of profession, from one instructor and another, but when do you hear the church carried beyond time into the everlasting settlements of eternity /—Where do you hear of these things ?— All the world is running mad.—The Epistles of the apostles are directed to the church, not to the world.——The church that lives from one eternity to another !—You are the delight of God.—The Lord hath never writ a bill of divorcement against his church.—We can fall no more; the church is safe.— All books might be burnt if we have found Christ.—What is grace? Grace is the Lord himself. We cannot grow in the Lord—The 35 It has been intimated in some of the Periodical Works, that in the extracts which I have given from the sermons of Mr. J. Hawker; Dr. Hawker; and his two Curates, Mr. Babb, and Mr. Courteney, I may have represented the sense, rather than have confined myself to the exact words. It is of high consequence that the reader should be satisfied on this point, and be aware that I have given, most scrupu- lously, the very words, without the slightest addition, This will never be denied. The style, as well as the sentiments are sufficiently characteristic. It is also important for the reader to know, that the most exceptionable sentiment recorded, was accompanied with no explanation or modification, which might soften its obvious import. r Kk - 130 Lord, in calling one and another amongst you, is performing a greater work than creating a thousand worlds.—It is said, ‘Grow in grace.’ Tenorant preachers don’t understand this, and misinterpret it. What says Paul? Paul had no experience of progressive holiness. Twenty-three years after his conversion, he said, ‘O wretched man that I am.’ I will tell you when God began to love his church—when God himself began! It is beautiful to see how God has loved the church, in their time-state, from generation to generation. A sixth finger shall as soon be added to my hand, as there shall one other mem- ber be added to the body of Christ. Who shall dare to add to the body of Christ?—The Lord % No opinion is more uniformly opposed by Dr. Hawker, than that of progressive sanctification. Hedeclares. “Hence, while the spirit, << at regeneration, is born again from the death of sin in the Adam- “ state-transgression, it can die no more, but is as holy as it ever can “ be.” Speaking of his former ignorance on this subject, he writes. “ Falling in with the too generally received notion, in what are called << gospel churches, that a life of grace in the creature is a life of pro- “ gressive holiness; like horses in a teem, where eaeh follows his ‘‘ leader, I trotted on in the beaten path with the many,” &c. The preceding consists of mere affirmation, but the reader is not to suppose that Dr. H. cannot advance into the region of proof, in defence of so favourite a doctrine. The following isaspecimen, “The Lord Jesas» “it is said, will change our vile bodies, that they may be like to his ‘ glorious body. But how could they be said to be vile, when in part “ holy?”! He further asserts. “In the history of the best of men, in “ Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, not one of them ever manifested ‘the possession of inherent holiness or progressive sanctification !” &ec. &c. 131 had a people before his incarnation.—God is not constrained by merit, nor restrained by demerit. My brother! The Lord knows the names of all his little ones.—God shows grace in defiance of our deserving it.—God will not suffer your vile bodies to be subdued !—I would not be without these workings of corruption for all the world !— I have no more fear of death than I have of life. — f Sin cannot sting me, it is taken away.—I am as| sure of going to heaven as I am of resting after the | labours of this day.—The church of God is as | safe on earth as the church of God in heaven.— | We shall have no more nuptials.—Shall the gos- ‘pel mercies be put up to the highest bidder? Oh! no, no, no, no.—The Son of God_ hath married the church to all eternity.—-No one event can take place that was not ordained.—Not death, nor sim, nor the grave can disturb our union with Christ.—We are married to Christ from everlast- ing.—Little saints, and great saints are equally == acceptable to Christ.—Small faith is sufficient. — You calculate too much on what has been done in your own hearts, not what has been done from all eternity, those great ancient antiquities—We do not remember the original settlements of eternity.—If there are but two or three of the called in this congregation, they are the church.— == They will be safe when the whole lump beside will be burnt.” — | ; 132 Is it on account of the splendour of diction ; the concatenation of thought; the force of argu- ment; or the felicitous power of interpreting, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the deep parts of revelation? Is it the lucid view that the preacher takes of Christian truth, combined with the faculty of disentangling it from error? Is it that other instructors are dark, as they are charged with being, whilst the “ New Church” Divinity is, as it is asserted to be, exclusively, light in the Lord, that such preaching should. so wonderfully captivate? This is a moral problem, not easily solved, and which proves that there is some one thing in the world extorting admiration, and at- tracting crowds, whichis unspeakably more valued, and calculated tocommandattention, WITH A NUME- ROUS CLASS, than Sense, Eloquence and Scripture.. Without stopping to institute a minute examin- ation and analysis of the sentiments thus advanced by Dr. H. or, to,descant on the injudicious, it may be said, the unfeeling, as well as the, unscriptural practice of Dr. eee in perpetually declaring to his. listening concourse, that, except. a very small number of them, they were. all hopeless Repro- bates, doomed to endless. perdition; that a few would be saved, do what they would, and that hell would overtake the rest, do. what they might, I shall. merely direct, the reader. to; @ contrast between the sentiments of Dr. H. and. those. of the 133 Bible. A more direct, and impressive Anticlimar cannot be conceived of, than the /anguage and spirit of the one and of the other. The last is majestic as the Sun, clothed in insufferable splen- dour, the other mean as the worm that crawls. To the fallen and perishing children of Adam, the scriptures proclaim, “Ho! every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters.” “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.” “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” “ Whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely.” To which the Saviour of the world adds, “Ask and ye'shall receive, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” ‘Whosoever com- eth unto me, I will in nowise cast out.” And to this, the Apostle subjoins, as consolation to the penitent, to the end of time, “ Whosoever calleth on'the name of the Lord shall be saved.” To this galaxy of all that is hopeful, and encouraging, and animating, to a sinful world, Dr. H. subjoins, as aicomment, worthy of his creed, “If there are but two or three of the called in this congregation, they are the church. They will be safe, when’ the whole lump beside will be burnt.” — _ After dwelling on such views as the preceding Extract furnishes, how refreshing to escape, and breathe a different'atmosphere. How renovating 134 _ and consolatory to turn to our Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount, and those other scriptures which encourage the sinner ‘to lay hold on the hope set> before him in the Gospel.” In opposition to all the discourses of Antinomians, how simple and impressive are the uniform representations of scrip- ture.—There we are assured that it shall go well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked. There we are taught that we must give an account of every thing done in the body, whether good or bad. There we learn that Life is a seed-time for Eternity, and that whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. There we are told, that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. &e. &c. Without disturbing the firm basis of Justification, here issomething tangible, something which every mind can comprehend. Here are threats and promises, explicitly stated, according with the Bible, in its universal spirit; which suits Man generally, as a Fallen Creature, and gives him the distinct warning which might be hoped and expected from that gracious Father, who has made of one blood all the families of earth; but the creed of Antinomians tends to expunge one half the Bible, and to neutralize the other. It may further be remarked, If the above de- clarations be undeniably true; if Christ confirmed them, and enjoined his followers to watch; to do the work of the day; to walk in the light; to build 135 on the rock of his commandments, through faith in him; to remember that we are Stewards of whatever talent we possess, and must erelong re- sign our Stewardship: if Christ has declared “The Son of Man cometh in an hour that ye think not.” —‘“ Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing:’ ? in the face of such awful injunctions, are Antinomian mi- nisters so regardless of their obligations as to allow their hearers to meet and part to the thou- sandth time, and never once remind them of their Saviour’ss words? There are no Antinomians living who would not warn a blind man, walking toward a precipice, and yet they allow the spiritually blind to walk toward the great gulf of Eternity, and find no heart to warn them. Is there Jess preordination in the one case than in the other? Though ready to screen a bird from the net of the fowler, they resolutely quench all pity for the unconverted crowds who even attend their preaching. They not only abstain from setting before them life and death, but labour to extin- guish in them any glimmerings of hope, and at the same time shut up their own “bowels of com- passion” with the Satanic Aphorism, “If they are to be saved they will be saved!” . Antinomians are not satisfied, like enlightened _Christian Ministers, to instruct their hearers, that, in the great day of account, whatever is not done 72 136 faith, however specious and imposing, will pass away asa scroll, but they feel an instinctive dread at intimating that there exists the least peril in violating the commands of God, and thus they merge duty in assurance, and obligation in privi- lege. Is this rightly dividing the word of truth? Is this the trumpet of the true watchman? Is this desertion of express commands, such as will be likely to secure the final welcome, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”? The threats and warnings, accompanied with invitations to sinners, instead of being suppressed, ought to be brought prominently forward by every genuine well-instructed Minister. It is not a ques- tion of choice, but “ woe” to those teachers who so far desert their duty as not distinctly to re- cognize “ these threats and warnings,” and, with St. James, and all the other Apostles, proclaim Works, as the essential and indispensable evidence of Faith. After all, it is but little that the best of men can do for their Redeemer ; but to be taught to make that little /ess, to be repressed in our efforts to serve God, and to be discouraged from the offerings of a willing and grateful heart, is an offence to the Most High, and cruelty to man. Where is the spirit imbued with the genuine impulses of Christianity, which would not desire that whatever zeal it pos- sesses in the Cause of God should be stimulated 137 rather than checked! What Christian would not rejoice in the possession of a hundred hearts and hands, and the possession of a thousand mines, that he might thereby enlarge his ability for glorifying his Maker, and the better testify, by obedience, his love to that Saviour, on whom rests alone his hope of Immortality ! It may be remarked that Dr. Hawker, in his final benediction, withheld his prayer for all the people, from an apprehension that some of the “children of Esau” might be present. His Christian bene- volence would allow him only to say, “May the blessing of the Lord be with all his church.” Many of Dr. Hawker’s occasional hearers, from the seriousness of the accusation, are exceedingly zealous to defend him from the charge of Antz- nomansm. In order to settle, for ever, that question, Dr. Hawker shall speak for himself. “ Now, Sir, (See Dr. H.’s Letter to the Rev. J. Bidlake,) in oppositition to all that you have said, or can say of the Amtinomian, I assert, and 1 will make it fully appear, by matter of fact, that every true Amtinomian, is and must be, by the very nature of his principles, A REGENERATED _ CHILD OF Gop!” He says again to professors. “No longer shrink from the charge of Antinomianism.” And on another occasion, Dr. H. exclaims, “Who in the latter ages of the church, in the gospel-day, 138 ever stood so high under the banner of Anti- nomianism as the apostle Paul!!!* : If wedid not recollect how strangely some minds are compounded, and how possible it is for sense in some things, to comport with a great prepon- derance of absurdity in others, none would hesitate in afirming that the declarations of Antinomians, with respect to the meaning of scripture, could be credited, alone, by infants and idiots. It is only by a dull and disingenuous interpretation, or mutilation of the Sacred Writings that they can obtain a shadow of countenance for their alleged meanings. For instance, St. Paul (as Anti- 37 The following is a modern condensed definition of Antinomians. «“ Antinomians, in Church History, mean certain heretics, the fol- “lowers of John Agricola, who first appeared about the year 1535, “ and were socalled, because they rejected the law, as of no use “ under the gospel dispensation, and taught:—that good works do not “ further, nor evil works hinder salvation : that a child of God cannot “ sin : that murder, adultery, drunkenness, &c. are sins in the wicked, “ but notin them: that the child of grace being once assured of salva- “ tion, never doubteth afterward : that no man should be troubled in “ conscience for sin: that no Christian should be exhorted to perform “ the duties of a Christian: that a hypocrite may have all the graces “¢ which were in Adam, before his fall: that Christ is the object of all “ grace: that no Christian believeth, or worketh any good, but Christ ‘only believeth and worketh: that God does not love any man for <¢ his holiness, nor reject him for his sin: that sanctification is no evi- “dence of justification: that the chosen cannot forfeit the divine “ favour: that they cannot do any thing which is really displeasing to “God; and, consequently, that they have no occasion to confess their “ sins, nor to be penitent for them.” Let every true Christian remember the injunction of the yay “ Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” 139 nomians exultingly affirm,) declares “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” This important truth is admitted by every Christian, but the great point is to determine who are in Christ Jesus. There can be no ‘individual revelation, but the same Apostle who advanced the affirmation, has given also the true test. Those are in Christ Jesus, and those alone, “who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” But such is the illogical rea- soning of Antinomians, that they appropiate to themselves the promise, but forget the condition on which the promise rests. They expect, an effect to take place without an adequate cause, a superstructure to be erected without a base, and “a clean thing to be brought out of an unclean.” From the loose texture of their inferences, it ought to excite no more surprise when they call St. Paul an Antinomian, than though they denominated him a Sadducee, for they can, with equal consistency, affirm themselves to be “spiritual,” though the carnal mind rules and reigns. They can profess to be in Christ, “though old things” are not ‘passed away,” and to be free from condemnation, though they still “walk after the flesh.” They expect a chain of arguments to draw, with a link fractured, and a consequence to follow in the ab- sence of that condition on which it essentially depends. 140 Unhesitating confidence produces, commonly, injurious effects on real Christians, and disastrous effects on such as are nominal. Our direction is, “To be sober and hope to the end.” Antinomians exhibit a fearful picture of the consequences arising from the abandonment of this caution, and of the danger of advancing beyond the region of Hope. They take the battlements of heaven by storm, and rise, in their own apprehension, with sins dangling beneath them as easily as a kite does in the air. From discarding, as they call it, all doubt, and “yea and nay,” they consider them- selves to be as sure of attaining heaven, as though they were already there. What motive can such men possess, to be watchful, to be stedfast, im- moveable, and always to abound in the work of the Lord? Faith with them is already converted into sight. They have done with hope, and with s=mall that which Dr. H. calls, “the rubbish of ordi- nances.” Crimes, and Impenitency may follow them to the verge of death, but still as Anti- nomians, they are safe, unassailable, and will (they assert) not only be the foremost, but comprise: the whole assemblage who are to enter the jasper gates of Paradise. These are the men who boast that Sin cannot hurt them. Sin not hurt “creature of mortal mould!” Had Beelzebub declared that sin could not hurt him, he would have been cor- rect, on the principle, that perfect blackness admits 14] of no increase: but for a child of Adam thus to declare, and ‘‘to teach others so,” indicates the most pitiable state of either inconsideracy, igno- rance or depravity. With how many cautions does the Bible abbnad against spiritual pride; against men thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think ; against pharisaical confidence ; against high looks, and a disorderly walk. Antinomians show, by actual exhibition, the evil effects which necessarily arise from scorning all these sacred injunctions, and of exulting, as they often do, where they ought to tremble. The practical tendency of doctrines is the best proof of their excellence. If a Believer in Revelation, through some powerful temptation, falls into sin, (one un- defiled by Antinomianism,) his evidences become darkened. If he persists in transgression, con- science is not only violated, but he feels that he has grieved the Holy Spirit. Should he still resist, and act contrary to light and knowledge, and the declarations of that word which was once his joy and trust, there is, as his heart tells him, but one step between him and death. He becomes a miserable man, till, in the midst of his distress, a ray perhaps from above, breaks in upon his mind, and he exclaims with a broken and contrite heart, ‘It was better with me before. I will make 142 use of the Name which is above every name. I will arise and go unto my Father.’ But if, in the interval between his fall and his recovery, the sable spirit of an Antinomian should visit his. abode, he assaults the afflicted man with all his trite and abominable sophistries, and at length, we may suppose, prevails on him to banish his idle grief, and rejoice in his fancied manumission. The new Instructor at once, laughs at his “sorrow for sin.” He tells the backslider, “God is not constrained by merit, nor restrained by demerit.” He tells him that ‘“‘ God will not suffer his vile body to be subdued ;” that “he himself would not be without these workings of corruption for all the world:” that ‘the Church of God is as safe upon earth, as the Church of God in heaven: ” that “an Antinomian must be a regenerated child of God:” that “Sin cannot sting him,” that “itis taken away ;” that “it cannot disturb his union with Christ: ” that “little saints, and great saints are equally acceptable:” that “small faith is suffi- cient.” He assures the once wretched man, who was mourning the absence of the light of God’s countenance, that “sin is good for him;” that “it is a good thing;” that it ‘keeps him down;” and is “just as it should be.” He earnestly enforces on the sinner, that “he calculates too much on what has been done in his own heart, not what has been done from all eternity, those great ancient 143 > antiquities ;” and that, he as an Antinomian, notwithstanding all possible transgression, is as sure of entering heaven, as he is of resting after the labours of the day.” It is an effort to believe that such Pandemonium sentiments are not the direct suggestions of Satan.* The world is deplorably bad, but if such doc- trines as the preceding, were to be inculcated from every pulpit in the kingdom, for one twelve months, a breach in the moral feelings of the com- munity would be the result, which ages of better instruction could hardly repair; why therefore should a false and ceremonious phraseology be adopted in commenting on Antinomianism, which. tends to confound truth and perpetuate error ? There is a most sensitive feeling in Antinomians, toward themselves. They can exercise indis- criminate harshness, in respect to others, and, (without any compunctuous feeling,) consign to perdition, many of the highest examples of earthly 38 “¢ Not only do worldly lusts, and abandoned seducers, prove fatal “ rivals to Christ for the souls of men: but false teachers, with damnable “ doctrines, which flatter the pride and give liberty to the lusts of men, “ compass the destruction of multitudes. These especially draw off ‘““ such as have received serious impressions, and are disposed to do “ many things, and to attend on the word of God; but are not expe- “ rimentally acquainted with the truth, in the love and ‘power of it: “such unstable souls are soon seduced into superstition, enthusiasm, “ or Antinomian licentiousness, or any other plausible corruption of “ Christianity.” : | Rev. T. Scorr, “ ‘ 144 excellence. In the exercise of a still wider range of proscription, they can denounce, individually, and collectively, as enemies to the truth, the whole professing community, yet the moment the slender- est retributive hand is raised against them, or their tenets, the call for Charity is loud, and urgent, and, in the essence of selfish abstraction, they consider themselves as the most unoflending, op- prest, and calumniated of men! With a reference exclusively to their sentiments, let us hear no more of the “goodness” of Anti- -nomians. The interior character is known alone to the Great Searcher of Hearts, but man must judge of man, by visible superficies, and the direct tendency of his avowed principles. An Antinomian may display a pontifical deportment and be filled with pride, passion, envy, ha- tred and all uncharitableness, and yet, by abstaining from a few of the grosser vices, which produce’ immediate scandal, he may pass, with his ill-judging neighbours, for a “good man.” He who publishes a Pharmacopeeia; abounding with fatal prescriptions, if he knows them to be such, must be an enemy to his species; and, if he does not: know their pernicious tendency, he justly sustains the charge of consummate folly, but to the title of “good” he has no claim. And is not the offence aggravated ten-fold, whenever an Antinomian insinuates himself into the Church ; 145 first swearing his “assent and consent” to the rubric and liturgy, and who then, forgetting the solemnity of his oath strenuously commences a systematic attack on many of the most important doctrines on which the Establishment is erected? It rather aggravates than palliates the offence, if the charge of duplicity be warded off, by the declaration that Heresy entered not into the first view, but resulted from posterior conviction. Whenever the mental change occurred, a renun- ciation of all connection with the Church became an indispensable duty, for no affirmation can be more unquestionable, than, that the attempt to reconcile Antinomianism with the service of the Church of England, is as monstrous as it is impracticable. | _ The homage due to Truth (which discards all inferior considerations) compels me to. remark: without a perversion of human language, can any man be denominated “good” who despises the Eternal Laws of Righteousness; who absolutely cherishes his own workings of corruption, and would not part with them for all the world? With such tolerance for his own sins, no surprise can be felt that he should breathe the “healing unction” into the souls of others. | Truth must be uttered, and the more the sub- ject is considered, the more indubitably clear will it be found that a rank and avowed Antinomian has oa 146 no more right, in equity, to a Pulpit in the Establishment, than a Jew or a Turk. Where is -»- the vigilance of Primates and Prelates in allowing such corrupt funguses to adhere to the venerable — walls of the Church, within which the brightest ornaments of past ages, (with many who adorn the present,) exerted their mighty talents to expose the very heresies which now, in the same places, Antinomians unblushingly proclaim ? Though holding in detestation the sentiments of the Antinomian, I would not hurt a hair of his head, nor that of any other human being, on account of religious opinions conscientiously entertained; yet who would not mourn to see a Mussulman in a Christian Pulpit, teaching Ja- hometanism, or an Antinomian, in the same place, preaching down the everlasting ordinances of God? If the sillier part of our race are willing to receive their creed, not from the Bible, in its irrefragable import, but from Corrupt Expound: ‘ers; 1f men can be discovered, rapturously to approve such trash as is often forced on them by Antinomians, let them be assaulted with 39 The arguments of Bishop Taylor and Boyle and Locke and Bishop Hoadley, are unanswerable, on the subject of Toleration. The latter of these charged some in his day, with doing that which many Antinomians labour to do at present. “ Who build” the Bishop says, “ the church of Christ on the ruins of sincerity and common “honesty, and set the obedience of Christ’s subjects loose from “ himself.” | 147 arguments, and arguments alone, but still, let not a Pulpit in the Established Church be made the Arena, where Heretics war with sense, scripture, and their own oaths, and prophane the place which was designed for better men, and the enunciation of purer sentiments. } A few years ago the Church abounded o Antinomian ministers; the more conscientious portion of whom voluntarily quitted it, as became them; but the degenerate part inflexibly remained, testifying, as might have been expected, an attachment to the ‘“doaves and fishes” which pre- ferred inconsistency and disgrace, to the dire alternative of renouncing their Benefices: but if such men will not go, they should be driven. It is the solemn obligation of the Hierarchy, to guard the doors committed to their care, and not to: allow the most dangerous Heretics of modern times, to insult the Liturgy; slander the Truth; become the nucleus of a still wider and wilder defection in the Establishment, and thus to lead inconsiderate multitudes down to the abodes of death. Preeminently, and even criminally tolerant must that community be, which can retain in its bosom, men who every time they enter their pul- pits (which they consider as a fee simple) oppose the whole ceconomy of the Church. Truth has higher claims than ceremony, and Lncorrigible Antinomians should. be transferred, at once, over —Z 148 to the Dissenters, the respectable part of whom would not countenance them for one moment, but would send them on till they found at length their appropriate level.” If Antinomians could venture to traduce the Liturgy, with the same impunity with which they pervert the meaning of Scripture, what a simul- taneous clamour would ascend, particularly, from Plymouth, and its vicinity; but their motto is, “not open but covert war,” because the conse- quences (so well weighed by Antinomians) might operate to their disparagement. As those there- fore, who are in the church, cannot oppugn the Lessons, &c. which they are necessitated to read, they lower their effect by @ careless and most irreverent utterance, evident to minds of common observation. This remark is not lightly, but deliberately made, for strangers cannot but be impressed with the conviction that while Anti- nomians reluctantly read prayers which pull one 40% For Calvinists who maintain tenets tinctured with Antinomianism, “ or for Anticalvinists who maintain tenets tinctured with Pelagianism, “ far be it from me to offer any defence. Such persons ought to be pub- “ licly disowned by the bodies to which severally they profess to * belong.” . GIsBORNE’s Essays, p. 168. If the liberal and enlightened Rev. T. Gisborne deems it expedient to disown a Clergyman for being tinctured with Antinomianism, what would he, or what must all say of Clergymen who are not only tinctured but who in their sermons, and in their writings, avow and justify Anti- nomianism in some of its most gross and repulsive Sorms? ~149 way, they are consoled at the very moment, with the recollection that in their discourses they can pull another: and all this while, the poor insensible hearers perceive no want of congruity, but cry “Amen” alike to all. ~ Let not any one Antinomian suppose that I am prompted by a personal feeling in what I say. The very reverse is the fact. My expressions of regret that a Pulpit of the Church of England should be in the possession of an Antinomian, arises solely from the circumstance, that this ele- vated station only enlarges the sphere of his Heretical Influence. Crowds will follow an Anti nomian (especially if he be a dowd and fast and confident talker,) to a Church, where they can hear the excellent Liturgy, who would not Ysllow the same Preacher to an obscure Meeting-House. The prayers of the Church solemnize the mind, and throw a degree of reflected sanctity over the sub- sequent parts of the service, however deficient; and it is this corrective power which preserves some portion of vitality, in men almost spiritually dead. Of one point, all may be certain, —that whenever an Antinomian Clergyman separates himself, or is separated, from the Establishment, however much he may admire the Prayers of the Church, when he is obliged to read them, he will never voluntarily adopt them, when that compulsion ceases to operate! 150 1 must now refer to another Antinomian ‘Lumi- nary in these parts, whose fame had reached me, and who was represented, not inaccurately, as ascending to “TInsuperable height of loftiest shade;” I determined therefore, to hear for myself, Mr. Babb, Dr. H.’s officiating Curate, in the year 1822. I was the more desirous to know the complexion of this gentleman’s discourses, from the circumstance, that a friend, possessing every respect for decorum, informed me, that he once had been compelled absolutely to walk out of the church while this curate was preaching, and, to “shake off the dust from his feet.” He had the awful temerity to ascribe to Him, who was “holy, harmless, and undefiled,” not the atoning burden of his followers’ sins, but actual transgression! a participation in the common sins of the world! If false professors could have endangered Christ- janity, the edifice would long since have perished, but being founded on an immoveable rock of ex- ternal, and internal evidence, neither the folly of man, nor the gates of hell shall prevail against it. On this outrageous impiety, the language of hu- man execration is too weak for a comment. I took down a very few of the wretched sen- timents of this preacher, as they were delivered, 41 See Note at the end. ¥51 on one Sunday evening, and I here transcribe them, (absolutely verbatim!) that distant Christians may pray for such benighted instructors, and fervently hope that the mildew of’Antinomianism may never extend to their borders! The following heretical declarations are in perfect accordance with the avowed. doctrines of Dr. Hawker, as -might indeed be inferred, from their having been uttered in Dr. H.’s pulpit, and that by an indi- vidual, who was then, as he had been long before, his own approved Curate. Let the reader appre- hend, if he can, the acuteness of those feelings which would arise in his mind, on beholding one of the largest congregations in the whole kingdom, listening with breathless attention, and receiving as the most delectable communications, such exhibitions of the pure Beene of Christ as the . following. vk “People make a ies noise shold spread- ing Christianity, but it is no Christianity. Institutions and Societies are all busy in spreading false religion, producing, according to the appointment of God, a strong delusion that they might believe a lie, and so be all eternally damned.” 2. “These Societies” (The Bible, the Bartlett _ Buildings, the Missionary, &c.) “are all hastening the reign of the Man of Sin, and the sooner this reign comes, the better, that 152 the triumphs of Satan may be over, and the true Christianity universally prevail.” “Give yourselves no concern about your Faith. Having once had it, you cannot lose it. It is not in your own keeping, God keeps it, and it is safe.” 4.. <= “You will never be better, or more holy, = oO. to the day of your death, than you are this moment.” ‘‘There is not a devil in hell that is more <-==sinful and depraved, than is every one here present. From our first thought in the morning, to our last at night, there is nothing in us but what is vile and devilish. It is the same in God’s dear people, and thereby Christ is honoured in saving such sinks of iniquity.” (Repetition.) “There is not a devil in hell who is more sinful than we are every one of us this moment.” (Repetition.) ‘We shall never one of us be one whit holier, or better, than we are this moment, to the day of our death.” (Repetition.) “The more iniquity, and the more Anti-Christian doctrines and principles there are in the world, I was going to say, the better,” (Why, he did say it, No. 2.) “for it will the sooner bring about the full reign of the man of sin, and then a genuine gospel, 153 not a false and damnatory one, shall be extended over the whole earth.” - 9. “People do not understand election. If there had been no fall, then there would have been no election; and even if there had been no fall on earth, there would still have been an election in heaven.” - In enforcing the sovereignty of God, the Cu- rate concluded his argument, bys the following very notable illustration. 10. “(God sometimes sends rain on one field, and withholds it from another, and on what other principle can we account for it, that the gospel should be preached with greater purity in this town [of Plymouth] than in any other town in the kingdom?”!!! And i is this the chaff with which the church of God is to be fed? Are these the addresses which sinners are to receive, with death, judgment, and eternity before them? Are these elements for fostering a turbulent and contentious spirit, to be substituted, for the earnest warnings, to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world? to come out from the wicked, and to be separate, that God, through Christ, may receive us? 7 There is something magnanimous in the late Seceders from the Church, contrasted with the conduct of Dr. Hawker, and his associates. The 154 former, under whatever delusions they might rest, felt a discrepancy between their consciences, and their required duties, and, in conformity with the imagined sense of right, nobly renounced their connexion with the Establishment; giving sub- ‘stantial evidence that they could respect principle, in opposition to interest; and therefore furnished -an indubitable test of their sincerity; but here are men retaining the same sentiments, with the superaddition of others far more offensive and hostile to the Liturgy, and who yet sordidly cling to the emoluments of that church from which in ‘spirit they are so totally alienated ! In listening to this Preacher, my grief was — particularly excited when I looked around, and beheld hundreds of Charity Children, with others of tender years, who came to that church, to be instructed, on the authority of the Bible, to love God. and hate evil; to study peace and cul- ‘tivate charity; to be told of Heaven, and of that Saviour who had purchased it for all who with faith and penitence call on his name: but the address these poor children heard was absolutely corrupting! It had a direct tendency to conta- minate the young, and to harden, in their iniquities, the old. Ifa child of my own had been present I would have hurried him out of the church in order to preserve his uncorrupted mind from absolute -pollution! and yet all was attentively heard and 155 cordially approved by the less fastidious audience! But to recur once more to the Curate. The very form and features of Christianity are lost in the exhibitions of this minister. Here are triumphs for infidelity! and here is affliction for the devout! What! are all the institutions which adorn our country; originating in the Worthies of past ages, or emanating from those of. the present, and which exalt England to a proud pre- eminence above all lands; are these universal and imperishable monuments of Christian Piety and Benevolence, not only not salutary, but-pernicious, and hastening “the full reign of the Man of Sin!” The prophets of old wept over the preva- lence of iniquity, but at such a prospect these unhappy spirits would have rejoiced! If ever pity should find its. way to the heart, it would be felt for those who: could behold with indifference the vast engine which the Almighty, in our day, has called into exercise:—if ever compassion should. arise.in the human breast, it would be awakened for those who. could coldly survey the grand movement which. at present urges on the moral world; when immediate vistas are opened to the Christian’s. eye, with remoter prospects, still more animating; such as ‘excite his tears, and cali forth and combine -the praises of men, with the exultations of angels. At.this auspicious moment, when Heathenism trembles ; 156 when Superstition is yielding up her long-usurped dominion; when Missionaries (as organs of the noblest societies that ever appeared “in the tide of time”) with almost miraculous gifts, and graces, are furnishing the bread of life to all the nations of the earth, and who go forth “with their lives in their hands,” as “living epistles,” and exemplars of the holy religion they profess; at this moment, not to feel a glow in the heart, is treachery to God and man. But if to be neutral in such a season, when the powers of light and darkness are in hostile array ; if to preserve apathy in such a conjuncture, when the conflict virtually exists between heaven and hell, indicates a frozen temperament of soul, that both astonishes and af- flicts, to what befitting receptacle must those retire, who not only withhold their aid in such a crisis, but labour with invincible pertinacity to frustrate the “better cause,” and to defame its advocates! The genuine disciple, in contemplating the triumphs of Evil, which, (notwithstanding the inroads its empire experiences from the efforts of the good,) still maintains a predominant sway, derives a consoling joy from the hope that his Children’s Children will witness a more propi- tious day, when the “standard of the Lord” shall be lifted up, and the dominion of Satan decline before the supremacy of Him, whose right it is to reign. What share has the Antinomian in this — 157 joy! His horizon, alas! is not the orient dawn, which “increases more and more unto the perfect day,” but the evening twilight, where shade deepens on shade, till Night reigns, which no morning must succeed! Can there be hesitation in affirming, that he who possesses any portion of the spirit of Christ would feel the deepest pungency of suffering from being merely debarred from all participation in promoting the causes, and undertakings which are now advancing in the world. It is impossible to believe that a Christian can coil himself up in his own selfishness, and, from some gloomy and inaccessible retreat, contemplate, «nmoved, the spectacles of joy which on every hand pass before him ;—to feel placid under the conviction that no prayer of his for the intrepid and toiling missionary augments the number that at this moment ascend as sweet incense to the throne of God; that he has exerted no effort to kindle the ardour of those who not only say “Thy will be done,” but who labour to advance that will ;—that he can successfully grapple with the internal monitor, under the knowledge that, in this unprecedented juncture, he has administered none of the substance with which the Highest has blessed him, to extend, far off, the tidings of the Redeemer’s name;—that vo particle of his gold is circulating, i grand combination, through the 158 veins of Zruth, who is now rising, like a refreshed. giant, from his slumbers, to achieve new and more memorable triumphs on the plain of the spiritual Armageddon. If there be such charac- ters, and such there are, who stand aloof, and: have “no part or lot in this matter,” let them re- tire! The cause will proceed without them. Instruments will be called forth, more worthy of the honour to be put upon them, and these, in the midst of their glorious avocations, will pity their calumniators, and fervently implore “that the hearts of the disobedient may be turned to the wisdom of the just.” 11} Those who behold in the present horizon no precursor of that bright dawn which is to lead on, and ultimately unfold the “day of the Lord!” re- ject disdainfully a prospect and a promise which millions hail. But the individuals to whom these: strictures advert, have another day, which irradi- ates no eye, and cheers no heart but their own. Instead of anticipating with delight, the period when righteousness shall universally prevail, and Earth realize her predicted renovation, the Anti- nomian understands by his “ Day of the Lord,” his “ True Gospel,” hereafter to be revealed, and to which such mighty efficiency is ascribed indifference to sin, to purity, to holiness, to con- formity to God and Christ, and a mere cold recognition of dead faith, which floats in the head, 159 but never sinks down into the heart! What benefit has resulted from their faith at present, and what good would it effect through illimitable ages’ And yet the ascendancy of “pure Anti-' nomianism” is to form the transcendant epoch, in describing and anticipating which, the loftiest imaginations exhausted all the splendid images of nature, and Prophecy herself toiled beneath the weight of her beatific vision. With what blinded eyes, and obdurate hearts, must Antinomians read the 51st Psalm! How can they understand the deep and agonizing com- punction for sin, which prompted the Psalmist to exclaim, “Have mercy upon me, O God!” Aacording to the multitude of thy tender- mercies, blot out my transgressions!”? To the confounding, if not confusion of Antinomians, he could say, “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” ‘“ Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” “Create in me aclean heart, O God! and renew a right spirit within me.” “Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”* 4 The writer had prepared an Antinomian Comment on the verses, here introduced, beginning “ How so David?” In which the Psalmist was answered, and corrected in the very same language with which Anti- nomians oppose those who at present adopt the sentiments of David. Something might have been tolerated, by the reader, for the sake of the 160 If those, under whose tongue is the poison of asps, were not restrained by Him, who gives to the sea its bounds, every statute and precept in the whole Bible might be opposed and per- verted, till all that is holy and heavenly were hunted out of the world. Let him who is on the Lord’s side, in this hour of perilous innovation, discourage, and stand apart from men, who are exhibiting once more, and with kindred spirits, the ancient rebellion of Kora, Dathan, and Abiram. | Had this Curate, this Minister of the Church of England, the hardihood to affirm, surrounded as he was by approving multitudes, that, “We shall never be better than we are, nor more hgly, to the day of our death.”? Is it possible that he can read the Bible which others read? Has his eye never glanced on those words; “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.”? or on the praise bestowed on those who go “from strength to strength.”? or on the injunction, “not to be slothful, but to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises,”—to illustration, but this Comment was withheld on account of the apparent want of reverence, inseparable frem the subject. The same feeling prevented the writer from giving the Antinomian’s substitute for the Athanasian Creed, page 99. 161 “grow in grace,”—“ to let our moderation be known to all men.”? or, on the command, “ Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity,”—to be “ always abounding in the work of the Lord,”—to be «“ holy in all manner of conversation.”? or on the solemn words, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also Teap.”?* 4S In the excellent volume of Sermons, recently published, by the “Ministers of the Congregational Union of Scotland,” in a Discourse by David Russel, (Dundee,) there is the following just sentiment. “‘ Whatever may be said by the enemies of the cross, Christians are “ distinguished from others, not only by their faith, but by the sanctity “ of their lives. They walk in the way of holiness, and this is the “ way of Christ’s commandments. | Holiness is an essential branch of “salvation. It is not merely an evidence of faith, but of a change of “ character: it is itself the new character formed, and the very “ element of our happiness. There is in it, therefore, an intrinsic “ value, besides the evidence it affords of the nature of the gospel “ and the reality of our faith in it.” (p- 455.) Antinomians will regard the enunciation of such sentiments, with their usual contumelious disdain, yet this is the Christian’s “ highway.” This “way of holiness” shall not be passed over by the unclean, and “no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast—but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord,” &c. Isa. xxxv. 8—10. Dr. Watts says, “ Though the gospel offers us salvation by Faith, “ and not by Works, yet it effectually secures the practice of holiness, “ since holiness is a part of that salvation. We are saved from sin as well as from hell by the gospel; and we must have our souls prepared “‘ for heaven, as well as brought to the possession of it. He that “‘ pretends to trust in Christ for a deliverance from hell, and has no “ desire to be made holy, he has no desire for such a salvation as Christ “ proposes in his gospel.” M 162 Mournful aggregation of evil! Does this same preacher declare, before a numerous Christ- ian congregation, that “there is not a devil in hell who is more sinful and depraved than is every one here present! from his first thought in the morning, to his last at night!” This, being a direct and indiscriminate charge of abandoned morals against a particular assembly, of whom I know nothing, I can only express my disbelief of its truth, and should have felt surprise that the traduced individuals, then present, did not rise, with commendable indignation, and quit, for the last time, so injurious an association, had I not recollected that this diet suited their digestion, and formed their ordinary repast. Certainly such over- whelming accusations would have calumniated the most direful crew that Britain ever exiled. But on the contrary, if the curate meant by this general charge of Diabolism, to characterize all the sincere disciples of Christ, it is as false and foul an aspersion, as ever entered into the heart of the Father of lies! It is true that vain and wandering imaginations too often molest the Christian, but they are not entertained. They are strangers that obtrude, not guests which are cherished; they excite vigilance and produce humility; and though as long as life lasts, the good man will hold a perpetual conflict with internal foes, and will 163 acknowledge himself, in his best services, (when a stranger to the practice of any known sin,) to be an unprofitable servant, relying on a better righteousness than his own, “ My holiest deeds indulgence will require, The best but to forgiveness will aspire.” Mrs. H. More’s Reflections of King Hezekiah. yet he would be as holy as the angels of heaven, and with David, can fervently say, (what no Antinomian can) “Search me O God!” “TI hate vain thoughts, but thy Law do I love.” Heaven itself, to the Christian, derives its chief attraction from the hope, that he will there behold Him whom he loves, and be for ever like him; but if the Antinomian delights in the prospect of heaven, not only for its boundless felicity, but for its perfect holiness, is it not strange, beyond con- ception, that he should desire and enforce at present, no assimilation to such a state, without which, inspiration has declared, “No man shall see the Lord!” When will these oppugners of the truth, these perverters of the doctrines of grace, terminate their labours and innovations? Is Christianity only a phantom? and are its advocates universally ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing?” Is the profession of faith in a crucified Saviour, a mere cloak for hypocrisy, which reserves for the eye of Heaven, enormities that are not surpassed even in hell? 164 and is this severe charge now preferred, not by Infidels, but by professed though treacherous friends? Have prophets spoken in vain? Have Paul and Peter exhorted in vain? Has a Saviour suffered in vain, not to redeem from an evil world, ‘a peculiar people, zealous of good works,” sus- taining, in some humble degree, his own image, and aspiring after a stronger resemblance, but, to retain in their depraved state, obdurate offenders, and “sinks of iniquity,” who are not saved from their sins, but 7m their sins, both in the deliberate love of them and the actual practice? ‘“ And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified.” Is the sanctuary of God to be thus violated, and those who attend the altar to become the advocates and apologists for the “ workers of wickedness?” Is the line of demarcation be- ‘tween those ‘‘ who serve God,” and those “ who ‘serve him not,” to be obliterated with. sacri- ‘legious impunity, and “the vineyard, which ‘the Lord hath planted,” to be “utterly laid waste.”? ‘There ever have been, and will continue to be, to the end of time, in augmented numbers, those amongst the sons of men, whose hearts are (in a limited sense,) the temples of the Holy Ghost; whose last utterance at night, as their first in the morning, is, ‘Bless the Lord, Omy soul!” and who do indeed hunger and thirst after righteousness. i « ———— ee a? 165 Though Faith in the Redeemer is the Rock on which they rest, they can say in the sight of Him who knows the heart, “Search me, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” He who cannot, imperfectly at least, adopt this language; who is not only a stranger to such hallowed aspirations, but scoffs at their existence, authorises the melan- choly suspicion, that he is still “in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity.” I withhold the remarks which still crowd on my mind on a re-perusal of the preceding “ here- tical declarations.” Their effect however would be the more to be deplored if their weakness did not predominate over, and thus, in some measure, neutralize their wickedness. If Souls were not at stake, we might pity and pass on. , After very serious hesitation, I have resolved on venturing to the utmost point of the Reader’s forbearance in giving a few of the least excep- tionable specimens of the sentiments and language current among the Low Antinomians. One record, itis hoped may be tolerated. The picture would be imperfect without it; and while the Reader is thus furnished with views of both polite and vulgar -Antinomians; those who are im the Church, and those who are out of it, he will recollect that the examples adduced are no imaginary cases; no efforts to sport with his moral feelings, but ge- 166 nuine exhibitions of what is perpetually ities in different parts of the kingdom. I must more particularly observe, that, the professed object of the present work was, an exposure of the Plymouth Antinomians, and this measure appeared to be the more desirable, as they may be regarded as the corrupt fountain-head which supplies, with copious abundance, many, if not most of the collateral streams. But had it been my design to furnish a full display of those extravagant Neutrals, disowned, alike by Con- formists, and Non-conformists, and who move in a pestiferous atmosphere where none but them- selves could exist, an ample scope would have been furnished for alternate pity and execration. When Antinomianism happens to be combined with abject ignorance, as it frequently is, in me- - chanics, who address their auditory, with an union of scurrility and dogmatism, the Speakers proceed, often, to disseminate their offensive tenets, with a grossness and vulgarity of thought and expression, of which sober Christians can but imperfectly conceive. There are Ultras here, as well as in politics, and what kind of fearful com- pound must an Ultra Antinomian be! These men con the pages, (if they can read,) of Wm. Huntingdon, and also make a choice selection from the apothegms of their more educated Plymouth Masters. Thus furnished, they substan- 167 tially preach down the Bible, and venture into extremes, which, (could they hear them,) would excite a blush in their Principals themselves. Education will produce some considerable effect, in modifying the coarser phraseology of Antinomians, but it is the natural tendency of minds which perceive no criminality in Sim, and can - justify intemperance,” to exhibit a total destitution of delicacy, which is the test and safe-guard of virtue, in the Young, and one of the noblest embel- lishments of correct Old Age. For if Sin be a feather, what object in nature can represent the insignificant lightness of decency? If Sin be “a good thing” in Antinomians, can grossness be a bad one? A large proportion of these men appear to have extirpated from the soil of their spirits the drooping and exotic plant of delicacy. The Plymouth Antinomians, it is readily confessed, are exempt from this particular charge; but the Neutrals, before referred to, exhibit the most disgusting consequences of abandoning this fine ornament of elevated minds. / - 4 The writer himself knew a notoriously dissolute man, (a rigid Anti- nomian, who adopted his faith, like many others, as a mere salvo for his conscience,) who was once rebuked by an acquaintance, and inquired of, how he could so talk about assurance, and boast of his Religion, in his state of almost habitual intoxication, when the deluded man replied with some warmth, “Do you think a little Beer can wash ‘Christ out of me!” This speech was uttered but a short time before his death! 168 I have it, from a most credible hearer, that one of these ultra Antinomians, who, like his fellows, rejected all biblical law, including the law of decency, sometime ago took for his text, (most unsuitably, ) the first part of the Sth verse of the 8th of Canticles, and his sermon was both corrupt, and corrupting! Yet few ministers (what an abuse of the term!) in his district, could collect such a rabble-like congregation. One irreligious young man, who was accustomed to attend his preaching, declared he was so droll a fellow, that he kept him laughing all the sermon! and further remarked, that, to hear him preach was as good as going to a Play! This man, commenting once, on the Sth of Ro- mans, thus expressed himself. “Separate! Some say Stn will separate. It’s a lie. Sin sha’n’t separate.” He was rather captious in his estimate of the Old- testament characters, and affirmed of Moses, that he was “a Merciless T yrant!” Speaking of the ~ Prodigal Son, he described him as one who had to be sure, wandered from home, “until the Devil Jowled { jolled) his head against a beam, and this brought him to himself and to his father’s house again.” This man did not deny a progress in re- ligion, but he represented that progress to consist in growing worse and worse, and more and more like Satan ! Another Antinomian Holder-forth predicts, that, \ 169 from the reluctance of ministers fo preach up the Covenant, in a few years there will be no Gospel ‘left! This same individual declares of all other denominations that they preach a “ devilish Christ- ianity.” After declaring what he said, was “the Truth,” he thus concluded. ‘If the Holy Ghost himself were to contradict me, I would call him a Liar!” In exhorting his hearers to take comfort he proceeded thus. “Come you fretful, you mur- muring, you devilish Christian, you think you shall go to hell to day, and to heaven to morrow. You poor Devil, (there being no yea and nay) you are as safe now, as though you were already in Heaven.” One of the female followers of this man declared “The best evidence I have of being converted, is, the enmity I feel in my heart to- wards God.” Another said, (the genuine organ of the whole fraternity !) “I don’t want to hear what I am to do for God, but what God has done for me.” The last mentioned preacher, in discoursing on Peter’s denying his Lord, introduced a dialogue, in which he mimicked the Apostle, and thus personated Peter. “Il be d——d if I know the man!” ‘Cultivate, (said he,) the corruptions of the heart, for the more you know of them, the _more you will know of yourself.” In opposing those who differed from him, he exclaimed “I'd 170 rather be a bull-dog than an Arminian.” And in decrying another class of professors, he thus ended his declamation. “God damns sien Angels damn them, and I say, G—d d them altogether!” All these abominations were heard by an in- telligent friend, and I give them as a brief, but awful specimen of the common sentiments of the Low Antinomians, who are scattered over the country, leading astray “Silly Women,” and mak- ing their male proselytes ‘two-fold more the children of hell than themselves.” And what better can be expected, when Clergymen furnish the outline which these horrible Blasphemers only fillup? There is hardly a sentiment in the pre- ceding recitals, the germ, or the explicit avowal of which is not fairly deducible from the doc- trines of the Plymouth Antinomians. A letter also now lies before me, from a respectable Minister, detailing the monstrous impieties of Antinomians in Essex, which have come under his own notice, but enough has been already advanced to make every Christian mourn, “as one who mourneth for his first-born.” If Dr. Hawker perceives, as he necessarily must, some correct resemblance to himself in this dis- play, I would ask him, as a man of sense, and as a professed Christian, whether he can be satisfied to unite his name, in perpetual combination, with - 171 such associates? whether he can feel satisfied to be regarded as the Chief of swch a Clan, and contentedly allow these unworthy supporters of his cause to cite Ais authority, with any apparent justice, for opinions so revolting.” If Dr. H. by still inculcating his Amtinomian Doctrines, should persist in answering in the affirmative, and cannot, or will not see their demo- ralizing effect, to assault with a different argument, I would finally recommend him to ponder on the speaking fact, that, (as it is understood) there are but three pulpits in London, and very few through the whole kingdom, to which he can find access. In his journey from Plymouth, toward the north, Dr. H. might apply, for admittance, to every incumbent, at Exeter, at Bristol, at Gloucester, at Worcester, at Shrewsbury, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Newcastle, 45 I have portions of a Sermon, preached by one of the Low Anti- nomians, at Devonport, (late Plymouth Dock,) which I could wish to give the Reader, but am prevented from the excess of vulgarity and prophaneness which they contain. This Preacher, who rarely addressed less than a thousand hearers! used frequently to appeal for support, (right or wrong,) to the authority of his “Friend” “ Robert Hawker /” Titles, he said, he disliked. The end of one of his sentences may be allowed, as furnishing an idea of the acrimony of his spirit. Referring to some who differed from him, (to whom‘he applied the very foulest epithets, and at whom he literally swore !) he exclaimed, stamping his foot, and clenching his fist-—‘ Oh! if 1 were God - Almighty, I would soon thrust the Sword of Vengeance down their blaspheming throats!” : | 172 and receive from each a resolute denial!* It is consolatory to find that this estimate of the Antinomian Heresy so generally pervades the Establishment, but is not the inference to be de- duced from this marked exclusion, such as ought to make Dr. Hawker tremble! Is vital Christi- anity so near its extinction, that Dr. H. is obliged to exclaim with the seer of old, “I only am left?” Is it possible that the ministers of Christ can be thus confederated against a genuine disciple? Or could any but an Antinomian believe that re- ligious truth, in some of its grandest features, should have remained wholly concealed for eighteen hundred years, till a modern luminary arose, ‘in the fulness of time,” to throw lustre over the dark page of inspiration? Can Dr. H.: believe that those who have died “in faith” from the commencement of the Christian era ;—that the spirits of the “just made perfect,” travelled darkly on through their earthly sojourn, ignorant of the truth, and cheered alone by a “ damnatory gospel”? Dr. H. (who disdains all guidance,) exultingly Ab <° Butthon gh open and bare-faced Antinomianismis rarely professed,” it has been remarked, by a good judge, that, “ there are congregations, “exhibiting crowded audiences, where these opinions are very far “from being unpopular ; and obtain, in fact, through various inci- “« dental means, a most dangerous circulation through the country.” CHRIsTIAN OBSERVER, Nov, 1823. 173 admits that the light in which he regards. the meaning of scripture is wholly different from that which accorded with the views of the most accredited expositors of past ages; and this effect he naturally ascribes to his own acuter discernment. Wonderful as it may appear, he considers his own unsupported opinion as more than a counterpoise to the opinions of all our Hookers, Barrows, Taylors, Doddridges, and Wattses, and at the same time preserves his com- posure undisturbed, as well as his conviction unshaken, under the certain knowledge that his interpretation bears no affinity to that of the Fathers of the church, nor to any one of those Protestant ‘Worthies, whose names are held in everlasting remembrance ? Dr. Hawker and his coadjutors, may continue to deride humility, with all the other Christian Virtues; they may persist in uttering denun- ciations of ignorance against all the ministers of their own and other communities; they may stand on the pedestal of their own erection, and arrogate to themselves the spirit of infallibility ; they may abstain from warning the souls com- mitted to their care, to “depart from evil and do good;” they may scoff at, and contimue their efforts to oppose and frustrate all the institutions which are the glory of their country ; they may “ mock at sin,” and sedulously cherish the same 174 spirit in others; but, “For all this, God will bring them into judgment !” Upon a review of the preceding pages, though unwilling to retract any part of what my judgment deliberately approves, yet I feel that kind of mel- lowed relenting which arises from having been compelled to discharge a painful and ungracious duty ; and to censure, where it would have been more accordant with my wishes, to pass over, or to commend. It is but justice to the Plymouth Antinomians to state, that some of the severest expressions which appear in these Strictures, were directed against men who have evceeded their Plymouth friends in their diversified extravagances. Thecon- cession is also cheerfully granted, that Dr. Hawker always means well, but how many a well-meaning man has done incalculable mischief, in Law, Phy- sic, and Divinity! The influence of Dr. H. is the more to be deprecated, as he gives force to his sentiments, (according to general concurrence,) by the weight of personal character; and were it not for the debasing system which he has adopted, (that must often de violence to his better nature,) he possesses qualities which might produce great good, and secure general admiration; but, as it is, he is cramped, and narrowed, and bound fast to heresy, by almost indissoluble fetters. If he should arrive at that world, where know- 175 ledge will be complete, and imperfection shall be done away, will not the thought administer a pang even in heaven, that while he is safe, (and many it is hoped, whom he taught below, parti- cularly in his better days,) that he was instrumental in conducting so many others into the paths of error? that he once inculcated sentiments which dishonoured God, and countenanced Sin? Will not the remembrance diminish even the joys of ‘Paradise, that he stood aloof from his Christian brethren, in their efforts to spread the Gospel of Christ? that he denounced as Perverters of the Faith, and Teachers of “damnable doctrines,” almost the whole Professing World, amongst whom were found, in goodly proportion, men who were the salt of the earth, and the lights of the world? that he spake not well of the “Way of Holiness?” that he relaxed the motives to obedi- ence, in a generation too prone to go astray, and, with awful temerity, denied the obligations due to the Righteous Law of God? I here close my -address. If I have felt warmly, and, occasionally, expressed those feel- ings with an excess of earnestness, it has arisen from no wish to pain an aged man, (though still in the vigour of his faculties, and, from his office, entitled to respect,) but from love to “ sound doctrine,” and from an ardent desire to warn others of the fatal quicksands to which 176 they may be hastening. I have no animosity in my heart to Dr. H. ~My prejudices were and are rather in his favour. To render a_ personal service to him, or any one of those whom I have been reluctantly obliged to condemn, I would go far, and endure much, and perhaps the more, from the severe sacrifice which Conscience, on this occasion, has compelled me to make to the Cause of Truth. J.C. APPENDIX. Libel on the Church of England, by Schismatics in her own Community. A CONJECTURE was expressed, (p. 28.) that Antinomians could hardly be sincere in the high importance they attached to their creed, from their having made no grand effort to extend its influence; and especially by their never having “essayed” to form an Antinomian Missionary Society. This suspicion cannot now be altogether entertained. The hint has been taken, and the preliminary work, at least, begun. Since the preceding pages were sent to the press, I have received an account of the establishment of a New “Gospel Tract Society,” (its President Dr. Hawker,) from which it clearly appears that Dr. ‘AH. and his friends have now verily determined to send their “True Gospel” “as they are com- iM 178 manded, fo every creature:” so that the time zs at length arrived when the Plymouth Antinomians will diffuse their sentiments, in good earnest, if not by Oral at least through the medium of Dumb Missionaries, or 7racts, as widely, and as freely as the air they breathe. The following is their ominous Prospectus. ed PLYMOUTH AUXILIARY GOSPEL TRACT SOCIETY. The SUBSCRIBERS and FRIENDS to this INSTITUTION ARE REQUESTED TO MEET IN THE SCHOOL ROOM OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH, On THURSDAY neat, the 12th Inst. IN THE FORENOON, On Special business of the Society. The Rev. SEPTIMUS COURTENEY, M.A. FORMERLY FELLOW OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, Will take the Chair precisely at Eleven o’Clock. APHE Parent Institution of the Gospel Tract Society, was formed in Lonpon, in June, 1823, since which, several Auxiliaries have been established in Manchester, Ramsgate, Sandwich, Margate,’ &c.— . The professed object of this Institution is, to disseminate Tracts, of 4 complexion purely Gospel, unmixed with any of the unscriptural and perplexing Notions now so widely diffusing. It takes its stand on ‘dif- ferent ground. — It rejects all those ‘visionary ‘schemes’ of men, who, in direct opposition to the Word of GOD, profess the-confidence of con- verting the whole world; and in the hopeless pursuit are gathering immense sums of money for their various’ plans of proselyting, through- 179 out the kingdom. Tue GospeL Tract Soctety hath different pur- suits, both in its origin and expectations. In all its bearings it is directed on principles the very reverse. No money will be received but for which the Subscribers will be entitled to the full equivalent of Tracts in return, And as all the publications of this Society will be rendered to the public at prime cost, every Subscriber may have the amount of his subscription, iu Tracts, in equal proportion, whether it be of a penny or of a pound. And as there will be neither places nor pensions given for human help, there will be neither needed, nor allowed, any property to be funded, for such, or any other purpose.— ‘With an eye for direction from the Lorp, this Society will go no further than the resources from time to time furnish. They will send Tracts of the TRUE GosPEL, as they are commanded, to every creature.” * The leading feature of the Gospel Tract Society is the daily dependance on the glorious Head of His Church, both for its daily support, and for His daily blessing. And while the LORD graciously sends streams from this fountain, and the barrel of meal wastes not, neither the cruse of oil fails, the society will furnish from time to time, as the LORD favours with ability, keeping in view the LORD’s own direc- tion: freely ye have received ; freely give ! Any further information may be had, by application to the Rev. Mr. Courteney, Regent Place. Plymouth, Feb. 5. 1824. * From the Second Prospectus. It is painful to discard so soon the softened feeling with which the former part concluded, and once more to call up the tones of stern re- monstrance. This Prospectus is full of dark inuendos and covert hostility to the Cuurcn. It proceeds from Clergymen, who manifestly have the Establishment in their view; the doc- trines of which they have been long accustomed ‘to undermine, and who now, instead of manfully, and specifically stating, what the errors are 180 which these New Tracts are designed to correct, adopt general terms of reproach, and endeavour to effect that by insinuation which they dare not attempt to accomplish by fair argument. But the assailants must be driven from their ambus- cade, and their subterfuges be exposed. _~What does Dr. Hawker, and what do his Clerical Associates mean, by this indirect attack en our Religion and our Institutions? What Iesson do they mean to inculcate, and what ulterior object to pursue, by announcing for publication, ‘‘ Tracts of a complexion PURELY GosPEL, unmixed with any of the unscriptural and perpleving notions now so widely diffusing.”? Do they mean to charge, not only the ‘ Bartlett's Buildings Society,” with spreading a corrupt gos- pel, in disseminating, as it has long done, the collective wisdom and piety of past ages, but, as confederates in a similar design, the “‘ Church Tract Society,” which has been more recently established ? Do they include in this general proscription, all the tracts which issue from other and kindred Societies, in which every object is merged in the grand desire to make men “ wise unto salvation.”? What is meant by this New ‘Society “taking its stand on different ground”? On different ground! Are not the Tracts sanc- tioned by the “ Bartlett's Buildings Society,” and the “Church Tract Society,” in complete 18] accordance with the Articles and Liturgy of the Church, to which these Antinomian Clergymen’ have sworn assent, and to which they nominally belong? “On different ground”! Do they mean to proclaim a New Gospel, and in the arrogant assumption of superior light, to declare the Church, of which they are members, the criminal advocate of a False Gospel? | What does this Plymouth Society mean, when they profess—“to reject all those visionary ‘schemes of men, who in direct opposition to the word of God, profess the confidence of converting the whole world, and in the hopeless pursuit, are gathering immense sums of money for their various plans of proselyting.”? Do they design to involve in one sweeping ana- thema the labours of a Brainerd, and a Schwartz, to spread the tidings of a Redeemer;—the Mis- sionaries who have pierced the snows of Greenland and Labrador, or braved the fervour of tropical suns? Are their breasts so dead to the sympathies of man as to condemn, and, as far as they can, frustrate the efforts of the various Societies, (in this auspicious period of time;) which, under the Divine Blessing, have taught the Indian; tamed the Savage; reclaimed the Idolater; and in many places converted the desolate waste into the Gar- den of the Lord? Do the Plymouth Antinomians venture, in the spirit of judicial hardihood, to revile such men, and to disdain such effects? a 182 _ Is prejudice in them, so deeply seated, that they can trace no benefits following in the train of these hallowed Institutions? Can they cherish a hostile feeling toward Missionaries, whose ex- ertions are so successful in Africa and the East? Can they, through the cold misanthropic atmos- phere of their hearts, view with indifference, and even despise the beneficent Spirits, who have visited the Isles of the Pacific, and, wherever they have gone, appeared as the precursors of Temporal Blessings and Eternal Hopes? Can these be- nighted Antinomians regard with scorn! the laborious efforts of a Society which, after surmount- ing incalculable impediments, has, at length, translated the whole Scriptures into the most difficult language on Earth? Can they, by any endeavour believe that the Bread of Life thus presented to one third of the Human race, is not sent to them by the Father of Mercies, like the rain and the dew, which is “not to return unto Him void?” Can they contemplate the labours of a ‘arey, a Marshman, and a Ward, (the last now gathered to his rest!) who went forth, a quarter of a century ago, like the great Patriarch, with their staff in their hand, into a land, which (in a spiritual sense) was afterwards to be given to them for a possession, without friend, and, unprotected save by the arm of Omni- potence? | | | 183 ' These devoted Missionaries, while sustaining the full weight of Antinomian execration! have planted Christian Churches, to almost the extre-_ mities of India. They have established more than two hundred Schools for liberally instructing the Natives: they have through a wide range, promoted social and civilized life; rescued Fe- males from their protracted degradation, and thereby formed the first step toward. the cultiva- tion of a soil, till then as barren as the sands_ which surrounded them. Can Antinomians sézdi, as they have long done, cast a revolting look on these animating spectacles, and experience 70 as- tonishment, no recognition of the Divine Hand, when they behold from the Serampore fountain, Religious Truth flowing broad and full around: when they see the Word of Inspiration extended through these deserted regions, and the Inha- bitants now of more than twenty realms reading - “in their own tongues the wonderful works of God?” Is it possible that Clergymen can behold with unconcern, the Episcopal Establishment latterly formed in India; under auspices which almost supersede hope in the confidence of anticipation, and where present plans, however. great, are regarded as subservient alone to still grander in perspective? Antinomians can tum contemptuously. away from a sight so cheering! These traducers of the Church 184 to which they belong; these opposers of every projection to render men more enlightened and heavenly, can close their hearts to conviction, and, in their matchless imbecility talk of sending: out into the world, as a@ substitute for the Scrip- TURES, their own flimsy and wretched apologies for Sin and Satan ! And now, I again ask, what set have these Antinomian Clergymen to cling, as they do, to the Emoluments of the Church of England? The inquiry was before made, but the portentous disclosures. of this New Society, advocating a Gospel which the Church knows not, gives addi- tional force to the question. What right have these Clergymen to dive on the Establishment, while they daringly assail her doctrines, and declare her views “to be perplexing and unscriptural?” They take “their stand,” it seems, “on different ground.” They reprobate the “visionary schemes” which have prompted the two Societies in their own Church to send faithful Missionaries to the dark parts of the earth. They proclaim their benign exertions for effecting human good, to be acting ‘‘in direct opposition to the Word of God.” They charge their own community (as well as all Missionary Societies,) with “gathering immense sums for the vain purpose of proselyting the Heathen,” and declare themselves to be governed » by a contrary faith and to entertain pursuits 185 essentially different, “both as to origin and expectation ;” Let the whole Rational World answer, whether Clergymen avowing such sen- timents, while, at the same time, they inculcate all their various Heresies, are not, in the most rigorous and comprehensive sense, SCHISMATICS, IN THE Cuurcu! I must now descend to some humbler references. This Antinomian Tract Society, for spreading the True Gospel, with Dr. Hawker exercising over it the unconstitutional office of King and Council! professes to have “different views, from other Societies,” even “the very reverse!” With the disposition which might be expected, it attempts to exalt itself by depreciating others, and casts an ungenerous slur at the Bible Society, and certain other Societies, which deem it a point of simple equity, to make some compensation to their ~ Officers for their arduous attentions. This pitiful | effort to overthrow the edifice of Protestant Christ- ianity, proceeds on the declaration that “they will neither give Places, nor Pensions for Human help!” This is downright puerility. Five pounds a year, to a Secretary would be a serious encroach- © ment on their present principal, and four pounds more than would requite his labour. Bue if their transactions were as extensive, and required the © same attention which is demanded by the concerns of those Societies, thus unworthily condemned, 186 what Antinomian Secretaries would offer their gra- tuitous service? What disciples of Dr. H. would have toiled, and travelled in support of this “Gospel Tract Society,” for sixteen long years, without any other reward than the testimony of conscience? What Antinomians would have imi- tated the three Secretaries of the Bible Society, in devoting the prime of their manhood, with disinterestedness unprecedented, and zeal not surpassed, to the dissemination of the “ Bread of Life” to millions, whom they, and those for whom they acted, never saw, and whose praise they will only receive “at the resurrection of the Just?” The Members of this Antinomian Tract So- ciety calculate much on the results of a publie subscription! And to guard against any mis- appropriation of the zmmense sums which may still . be raised, the Society, in solemn convocation, has come to the fixed resolve that no part of the Society’s money, ‘shall be funded!” The prin- ciple of not funding, may be good in itself, but in combination with ¢hzs Institution it becomes ludicrous ! Some of the other rules of the Plymouth Society for extending the “True [ Antinomian] Gospel” are also rather singular. The Society is professedly to be governed by Twenty-four Staunch Antino- mians, eight to form a quorum, (“in whom, as far 187 as it can be ascertained, the saving work of grace is wrought;”) but they are all “ Men of Straw,” for the 6th Rule ordains that “The Rev. Dr. Hawker be the final Editor of all Tracts published by this Society.” Whether or not it has arisen, from the severity of the qualifying condition, the _ Antinomian Layman of these parts have rather tardily offered their names, or rather allowed their names to be enrolled for this high honour. Though on the whole, the probability is, (as Antinomians are not famed for standing foo low in se'f-esti- mation,) the reluctance may have originated in some lingering vestige of independence; disliking show, without utility, and shrewdly recollecting, that, in an absolute government, all rule is vested in the Head. There is also one slight inconsistency between the Laws of this Society, and the well-known opinions of Dr. Hawker. Dr. H. condemns, as impious presumption, all attempts to convert the Heathen, and declares that the practice derives no sanction from the command of our Saviour, “to go forth into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature;” for, as he maintains, the Apostles were only authorized, “to hold up Christ, not to offer Christ to the world,” yet he now says, that this New Society shall send “the Tracts” of the ‘ True [Antinomian] Gospel,” “as they are commanded, to Every Creature”!!! 188 Without stopping to notice the Barbarous English, in which this Prospectus is expressed, and which would form a fine subject of Jalse construction to junior classes, I shall proceed to observe, that, on the whole, it is impossible for an impartial Christian, after a dispassionate perusal of Dr. Hawker’s writings, and a due consideration of the insidious mixtures which they contain, of Good and Bad, Sense and Nonsense, Heresy and Truth, not to arrive at this conclusion; that, in order to avoid a total subversion of the thinking faculty, and to pre- serve some portion of the good old faith which sustained the martyrs, the only safe procedure, is, to adopt the plan recurred to, where Poison is blended with AWdeal—to THROW THE WHOLE AWAY. It will appear incontrovertible, to all but Anti- nomians, that, if Dr. Hawker’s Works contained no other objectionable parts than what have been adduced in these pages, such works would possess a dangerous character. If they even recommended the same views of Religious Truth which were in assimilation with the Church, and our most illus- trious Divines: if, in other respects, they accorded with sound Theology and Morals; on account of these occasional intermixtures of error, judicious minds, from the most commendable scruples, would repress, as far as they could, their circulation ; — 189 but throughout the whole of Dr. H.’s latter writings, these contaminating sentiments, instead of being occasional, fundamentally prevail: so that the only safe conduct to pursue, is, to sacrifice the good, on account of the bad. The entanglements of the two, are so great, and the sinuosities of error, SO subtile and predominant, that decisive measures are essential ; and, like the house, in ancient times, partially infected with the Leprosy, to check the contagion, the whole building must be pulled down! I shall now give the Reader one or two spe- cimens from this New “ Gospel Tract Society.” Dr. Hawker says, “It is no uncommon thing to ‘¢ hear men call God’s Children, while in their un- reoenerate state, ‘Heirs of Hell,’ and ‘Children “ of the Devil.’ Both which are false. For “ never in any one moment of their lives were they “ such, even in the worst days of their unregene- “racy. Servants of Hell, and wearing the livery of « the Devil, indeed they were, but never related “to him! Reader, ponder well these things.”— A more instructive injunction Dr. Hawker never gave. ‘Reader, ponder well these things!” and especially remember, that if men, before they are called, are the Children of God, while they are the “Servants of Hell,” and “wearing the livery of the Devil;” they are quite as much the “Chil- dren of God” (as Antinomians declare) after they are called, though stil/ the “Servants of Hell,” 190 and “ wearing the livery of the Devil!” The old Antinomian Adage, becomes thus established, that, “Sin cannot hurt Believers.” <“ Reader, ponder well these things ! ” The following are a few of Dr. H.'s precious “ New Gospel” Aphorisms. 1. “Look more at Justiication than Sancti- “ fication.” | | 2. “In the highest commands, consider “ Christ, not as.an exactor to command, but a “ debtor to work.” 3. ‘The Church is merely a receiver, and “ no worker.” 4. “ The Pharisee looks to a progressive work “ of holiness in himself.” 5: “In the history of Patriarchs, Prophets ‘and Apostles, not one of them ever mani-- “‘fested inherent holiness or bapseaire “sanctification.” 6. “It is the sprit only which is renewed “‘ while the body still remains, and will re- _ © main till death, the same subject of Sin.” 7. “ The Pharisee grows in love with himself ‘in doing, as he calls it, all the good he can “for God.” &c. &e. &e. This is indeed, “taking its stand on different ground,” from that occupied by the Tract Societies, sanctioned by “the Church.” Inno one of whose publications, happily, will such doctrines as the 191 above be discovered, nor such as follow. Dr. H. ‘says, “ Let it for a moment be supposed, that when ‘© God chose the Church in Christ, before the “ foundation of the world, to be holy and without “ blame before him in love, he had prevented the “ whole evils of the Full, in the present time-state “ of the Church, by creating them, and taking “them to glory in Christ at once; in this case, ‘Cit is true, they would never have known Sin. “ And some, for aught I know, may think that “there would have been nothing to have regretted “on this account! But I am free to confess that “such thoughts are not mine. Paul was, taught “by the Holy Ghost, to thank God that the “ Church had been the Servants of Sin, and I find “ cause to bless God for the same.” Marvellous! Dr. Hawker and the Antinomian Society, over which he so despotically presides, cannot, from the tenderness of their CONSCIENCES, circulate the Bible, nor the Zracts in agreement with the Bible, published by the “ Bartlett's Buildings Society,” and the “Church Tract Society,” but, “taking their stand on different ground,” they will most zealously send Tracts of their “True Gospel,” (illuminated with such sage metaphysical disquisitions as the above !) “to every creature, as they are commanded.” !!! These Antinomian Clergymen do indeed “take 192 their stand on different ground,’ but it is such ground as is mvt furnished by the Church of England, and if they will have new ground, let it be ground—DIFFERENT FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT ! In the course of the present work, a woful _ representation has been given of Dr. H.’s present sentiments, but some readers, unacquainted with the violence of the transition, may wish an ex- ample or two of the Doctor’s past opinions, comparing himself with himself.—Robert against Hawker, as was formerly said, “ Richard against Baxter.” A large and instructive display of these contrarieties might be exhibited, but on this occasion I shall restrict myself to the subject of — Missions. , It is well known that Dr. H. has opposed, for many years past, the very principle of Missions, from the strange idea, that it is, as he declares, “a daring infringement on the sovereignty of God,” and this opposition has not been of a dormant kind ; a passive suspicion, whether the end were attainable, and the means to be approved, but a determined resistance ¢o the least effort to instruct the Heathen, and circulate the Scriptures. The time he declares “is not come,” but when it shall be come, he doubtless expects Bibles to drop 193 from the clouds, as Manna did about the camp of Israel! A little relaxation has however been manifested by Dr. H. with respect to his own writings. These, to be sure, recommend the Truth, which the Bible does not; and con- sequently, no efforts arising from the Press, or the clamorous importunity of Hawkers, (who infest all the roads about Plymouth with “ Zhe Doctor’s Books,”) have been wanting, to spread the glad tidings of Antinomianism! The title of one of these delectable compositions, is, “ Bible Nuts,” and the Doctor would have no objection if these ‘Choice Nuts” were to be forever cracked and fed upon by every family in the three kingdoms, to the total exclusion of all other Theological Works. But on this point there is a little. perversity in the Public Taste, not likely soon to be corrected. Many readers will startle upon being eormed that even Dr. Hawker was once one of the most ardent admirers of Missions; and that the London Missionary Society, from his extraordinary zeal in the cause, selected him to preach their Annual Ser- mon, in the year 1802! This sermon was printed, and I shall now furnish the Reader with two or three extracts from it, as sad examples of human in- “stability! LDF te begins with suitable solemnity. ‘* When I look around and behold this nume- “yous congregation, and connect with it, in idea, oO 194 “ the grand object proposed from the assembly; “when J call to mind the promises of God, con- “ cerning the evtension of the Redeemer’s kingdom “in the latter ages, and stand convinced, from all “ corresponding circumstances, that the period is “hastening fast upon us: while the gracious “* commission of our departing Lord, given to his “ disciples in the very moment of his return to “ olory, still vibrates in the ear; and while I see “‘ here an assembly of the faithful, gathered from “ every part of the kingdom, as if moved by one “and the same principle, for this very purpose, “to follow up their Lord's command, and to send “ forth his everlasting gospel, from pole to pele, and “ from the river even to the ends of the earth; I feet “ animated in the delightful prospect: 1 begin to “ anticipate the dawn of that happy day, whose ‘‘ sun shall no more go down: and behold already “ in idea, Ethiopia and Seba, with the multitude “of the Isles, as stretching forth their hands * unto God.” Dr. Hawker again proceeds. “ Although, in the recollection of the office “ assioned me upon this occasion, personally “ considered, no doubt, there are circumstances “ enough, sufficiently discouraging, to damp the “< ardour of my mind ; yet, however conscious of my “‘ own incompetency to advance any thing new, or» “ interesting, on the subject which hath now for 195° ‘ several years called up the public attention ; I “ eannot but be emulous to bear a part, however “ feeble that part may be, 7” so glorious a cause: “ neither would I, upon any consideration what- “ever, forego the pleasure, resulting from the “¢ consciousness that I am here engaged in the very “first and best of all possible concerns; and the “ object for which [ stand forth this day before “ you is no less, under the hope of divine help, “ than to subserve in the promotion of the glory of “ God, and the final happiness of man.” Dr. Hawker’s heart is evidently warmed with the subject, and he thus impressively continues. ‘ Tn following up the great design of this day's “ service, I am happily anticipated, in almost “every part of it by the labours of my prede- “< eessors, in the department of preaching. They ‘have said, all that need be said, or in fact all “ that can be said, in bringing forward a subject, “‘ which carries with it its own recommendation. “ And it were altogether inexpedient to go over “the ground again which they have so success- “ fully trodden, ‘either, i contending for the “importance of sending the Gospel to the unen- “ lightened nations of the earth, or in pointing out ‘“‘ the best methods, under the divine blessing, of “ nerforming such errands of mercy. Their ob- _ servations have been given in before you with “go much strength of judgment, and in terms so 196 & decisive and unanswerable, that I can neither add “to the mass of evidence they have brought “ forward in favour of the measure, nor to the “ eloquence they have displayed upon the oc- “ casion.” The following arguments of Dr. Hawker are striking and unanswerable. “ Do not forget that the same gospel which “ points to the Spirit’s work, as the sole cause of “ olorifying the Lord Jesus, naturally implies, ¢hat “ God carries on his designs by human instrumen- “tality. Tf ministers cannot successfully preach ‘unless they are sent, neither can churches hear “ without a preacher. So that while an entire “ dependance is founded on the power of God, “ the province of manis as clearly defined. Hence “ therefore there is a call upon every heart to co- “ operate in so glorious a design, whenever a Mission “is undertaken for the promotion of Christian _ knowledge. 1 cannot suffer myself to suppose «“ that there is a single person present, whom the “ grace of God hath inclined to attend our services “this day, that can need the least stimulus to a “ duty of this nature. Who indeed can look “ over a vast region, ‘sitting in darkness and “the shadow of death,’ unaffected, unfeeling, “ unconcerned.” ; «But while these considerations have a needa “claim on every mind, there are some with 197 « whom they plead with more resistless eloquence. <© You who have known what it is to be brought out “of darkness into God's marvellous light ; who “have felt the misery of the human state by “ nature, and have tasted that the Lord 1s gracious ; ‘‘ what shall I say? you to whom the Lord Jesus is ‘‘ at this moment precious, in his person, in his “« offices, in his character, and in all the fulness “and suitableness of his salvation ; is it not the ‘earnest desire of your soul, that the mercy you “ have found should be extended to others? Are you “drinking of that river of life,‘ the streams of ‘which make glad the City of God;’ and do you “ not wish that your neighbour’s parched ground “ should be refreshed also? Nay, if Jesus be dear “ to you, is it not the first object of your soul, that “his name may be great, and his praise may be “ sung, from the rising to the setting sun, and that “¢ the trophies of his grace may correspond to the “« greatness of his salvation.” Alas! How is the fine gold changed and become dim ! aS The preceding are noble sentiments. It was from the inculcation of such, that Dr. Hawker obtained the high rank in the religious world which he once held. Tue “ Otp Winr” was THE Best. What a becoming spirit prevailed in Dr. H. at this time. Here is the display of _ deference for others. Here humility is seen. Here 198 the meaning of Christ’s charge to his disciples is interpreted correctly ; here the doctrine of human instrumentality is inculcated; and here the utility as well as the duty of Missions is admitted, and enforced. But at thattime, Antinomianism, with its withering influences, had not seated itself in his heart. All these Christian sentiments are now exploded! and, what is observable, Dr. H.’s whole Flock, who once participated so warmly in the same love of Missions which distinguished their Minister, with their wswal fidelity, have com- pletely changed; and now no other feeling than that of exultation would arise in the minds of Dr. Hawker and his Followers, if every Mission on earth were henceforth to be Abandoned, never more to revive ! | } And now I beg to offer one final remark re- specting the earnest, though, it is hoped, not intemperate language which may occasionally appear in this small work. Readers, for the most part, will be either approvers, or dissentients. Indifference few will feel. Those who find the rea- soning press distressingly hard on their favourite doctrines, will be violent in their opposition, perhaps loud in their anathemas. Approvers, on the contrary, will consist of two descriptions : those who heartily concur in the whole of the “ Strictures,” not excepting their severity, from remembering the aggravations of the evil here re- i99 probated, and those who desire to see Antinomian _ism repressed, but still wish that a more subdued temperature of mind had been preserved. If I am censurable for this ardour of expression, the censure must be endured, with regret that a good cause should have suffered from the un- skilfulness of its advocate; but knowing how strenuously Dr. Hawker and the Sect to which he is united, have exerted themselves, both to obstruct the extension of Christianity, and to pervert its henignant spirit: believing, as I devoutly do, that Antinomianism bears a malign aspect toward the Religion of the Bible; considering that its attacks are masked, and that its tenets are not more dero- gatory to God, than they are subversive of the whole Morality of Scripture, and consequently the best interests of man, I found it impossible to modify the decisive argument, or to restrain the current of honest indignation. Disdaining, therefore, the language of compromise, I have attempted fairly to grapple with the Foe, and a trust is entertained that the present imperfect effort will produce, at least, one beneficial result, that of directing Public Attention to the subject of these enormities, and which will doubtless call forth more powerful Auxiliaries, before whom (with the blessing of the Almighty,) the Antinomi1an Heresy must sustain an overwhelming discomfiture. NOTE. “Internal Evidences,” Page 150, Line 22. THERE are two Internal Evidences of the truth of Scripture, which I have not seen noticed, but as they have forcibly struck my own mind, if the Reader will pardon so long a Note, I will here give form to a few thoughts, which, but for the present occasion, would, perhaps, never have been expressed. On the Size of the Bible. WHEN an uninspired man undertakes to write an im- portant history, entering often into detail, of incident, description, and delineation, the work necessarily becomes extended. But when mighty events are recorded; the rise and fall of states; the lives of warriors and kings; the principles which regulated their conduct; the aggressions of neighbouring potentates; with all the results and changes which arose from conquest or subjugation; the boldest reader is appalled at the probable accumulation of pages. If the writer has to describe also his own country and ancestors, under all the impressions of personal and national 201 feeling, the temptation to amplify becomes still more imperative: and to whata magnitude might a work be sup3 posed to extend which was to comprise the labours not only of two or three such writers, but a long succession of them, through many generations? Now the Bible is this extraordinary work, and it is not only totally dissimilar to all others in its nature and execution, but is equally contradistinguished for the rarely-combined qualities of comprehension and succinctness. The transactions referred to are grand, beyond com- parison. The writers related occurrences which excited a supreme interest in their minds. ‘They were personally as well as relatively connected with the circumstances recorded. Many of them narrated their own exploits, as well as the exploits referrible to anterior ages. ‘The mul- tifarious writers consisted of Historians, Legislators, Biographers, Moralists, Poets, and Prophets. ‘The periods described present a matchless assemblage of important events; the Creation; the Fall; the Antediluvian state of man; the Deluge; the confusion of tongues; the origin of all the great monarchies of the earth; the lives of the Patriarchs, entering often into the minutest statements; their wonderful escape from famine ; the call of a particular people; (springing from the patriarchs, in whom was preserved, amid universal polytheism, the knowledge of the one Living and True God;) their ultimate bondage and miraculous deliverance; their wandering, for forty years, through the desert; the giving of the moral and ceremonial Law; the establishment of the same people in Canaan, where they were sustained for fifteen hundred years, till the coming of Christ, while all the great Dynasties by which they were surrounded successively crumbled away before them; the Babylonish; the Assyrian; the Persian; the Egyptian, and the Grecian. To these events must be added the expulsion of numerous idolatrous, long- 202 established, and powerful nations from Palestine; the reigus of an extensive succession of Monarchs, in two different lines, under whom the grandest and most complex trans- actions occurred which could pertain to so limited a region; includiag the destruction of Zion and its magnificent Temple, the Captivity of a whole People for seventy years, their ultimate redemption, with the rebuilding of their City, and the Temple of their “Great King.” At length, in the fulness of time, the Saviour of the World appeared, in whom a thousand predictions all centred. His birth and ancestry are narrated, with many incidental occurrences. His ser- mons are given; his precepts; his important actions, his miracles and his predictions. To this is subjoined. his arraignment at the bar of Pilate; an account of the indig- nities which he endured; his patient sufferings; his death, and his resurrection. To all this is added, the lives and travels of his Apostles; the establishment of the first Christian Churches, with a narrative of individual and general persecutions; twenty-one Apostolical Epistles; a voyage abounding with striking incidents; and the whole concluding with a series of the sublimest Revelations; yet this diversified mass of materials is concentrated into a compass which a Finger might suspend, and a Wayfaring Man can read! | With such strong inducements to expatiate, had it not _ been for an Overruling Providence, in restraining man’s natural disposition, a hundred folio volumes could scarcely shave contained so vast a depository. In this case, for all practical purposes, the Bible must have become nearly a sealed book; independently of the impossibility which would have existed, in a Manuscript Age, of disseminating copies sufficient to guard against the ravages of Time, or to allow three transcripts to the whole world. This compression must be viewed as one of the most striking of the Scripture Miracles. 203 If any section of this great work can be separated, as furnishing a superior subject for astonishment, it 1s, that such a Life as that of our Saviour should have been so briefly narrated ; a Life which was written by four of his followers; all of whom revered his character; regarded him as their Lord; beheld his miracles; recorded his mandates ; related his actions; attended his footsteps for three years, through all the wanderings of his active life; which consisted almost of a continuity of either doing, or saying ; who witnessed his contemptuous rejection by the Jews; his agonies; his death, and triumphant ascension; and yet such was the Invisible Influence to which they were subject, in their adoption of words, and their selection of actions, that each of these Biographers of Christ has so circumscribed his narrative, that it may be read at a sitting. The Hand of God is as manifest in this superintendance as it is in the formation of a World! | On Jesus Christ having left no Writings. Tur Second Internal Evidence to which I referred was, tbe circumstance that Christ left no writings. -- Had our Saviour appeared upon earth, in a merely hu- man character, bearing a Divine Commission; like the Old Prophets, it might reasonably be supposed, that he would have written as they did. He would have been influenced by human feelings, and must have experienced an earnest desire that the various sentiments he inculcated should not be mistated, nor the order even of his words be chang- ed: but what corresponding means were adopted to guard " against the one, or to secure the other? The Angel of the Apocalypse commanded John to ‘write in a book,’ what he 204 _ heard and saw, to prevent his injunctions and supernatural visions, from being forgotten: Christ, on the contrary, en- tertained no apprehension lest Azs actions, miracles, and precepts, on which so much hereafter was to depend, should be unfaithfully stated, and the effect thereby be lost on Posterity, to which his eye was habitually directed. Christ professed to have come into this world for the purpose of consolidating a Religion which was from above ; to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and to establish, what had never before entered into the thought of man, a pure and spiritual empire. Influenced by such anticipa: tions, his days and his nights, it may be supposed, must have been occupied in minutely arranging this unprece- dented assault on the Kingdom of Darkness. With views so calculated to animate and impel, every human character, would infallibly have left behind him deliberate and indeli- ble Writings, as a permanent standard of appeal. If, however, from any possible cause, Jesus Christ had declined, like Mahomet, the task of transcription, like Ma- homet he would have felt a proportionate increase of anxiety to secure sage and competent Assistants, to whom he would have imparted his doctrines, and recited the most important of his actions, with the plausible motives for those actions ; and finally, he would have inspected all their statements with the most scrupulous care. It was not in Man’s Nature to have neglected any probable means for effecting such an end, or to have felt indifference, when every thing interesting to our race was implicated in the result; when a Religion was about to be promulgated, which was speedily to subvert the power of Roman and Barbaric Superstition, and ultimately to regenerate the World. His attention would have been especially directed. to that testamentary account, which was designed for other times, and where a few uncorrected errors, and slight inconsistencies, might have demolished, irretrievably, the 205 whole edifice. With such objects to obtain, and such dangers to avert, what was the fact? Jesus Christ, instead of preparing this well-digested statement of his actions, doctrines, and miracles, never wrote. one word! Instead of selecting historians to record his life, from among the Learned, and the Refined, . he chose rather for his Coadjutors, and Biographers, Illiterate Fishermen! Instead of providing for the future, and testify- ing an earnestness lest succeeding generations should but imperfectly comprehend his designs, arising from. the incompetency of the Agents who were to transmit a state- ment of them to posterity ; instead of cautioning those of his followers who might project a history of their Master, for distant ages, to be faithful, and to omit no part of those leading points, on which the strength of his mission rested, he absolutely gave no directions, made no provision ; and discovered no solicitude ! Bini 7 Could the mind devise a procedure more directly calcu- lated “to bring to naught” all the objects at which he professedly aimed? It bears as:little resemblance to the uniform workings of the heart, and is as inconsistent with design and imposture, as it was in Christ, at the very moment his Disciples distinctly recognized him as the Messiah, the Son of God, to predict his approaching death at Jerusalem, and in the prospect of that death, to utter, with a super- human solemnity, “O, Righteous Father ! these have not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.” Or, as his last hour approached, to set his face, “ stedfastly to go to Jerusalem,” though he knew and had predicted, that, at that place, (the grave of the Prophets!) he should “ suffer many things, and be re- jected of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise again.” aren One species of instruction Christ indeed conveyed to his disciples, contrary to the established maxims of policy, and 206 _ which would have alienated from his cause all who had not “some good thing” predominant in their hearts toward “the God of Israel.” He “forewarned” them that their fidelity to him, would entail the loss of all things. He in- formed them that they would endure privation “for his name sake.” He authorized them to expect no better fare than their Master had experienced, “ who had not where to lay his head.” He taught them that they would be hated of all men, and sustain contumely and reproach ; that bonds and imprisonment would await them, and in some instances death itself. But these, like his other instructions, were all verbal, and in the plenitude of such communications they still remained but partially illuminated; beholding little of the symmetry of that Salvation whiclh'was about to be un- folded to the world. But if the Disciples were perplexed, at this time, as to the true nature of the Gospel, with all the advantages of the Saviour’s oral instructions, what prospect was there that they would more lucidly compre- hend its scope and tendency after his decease? seeing that no documents existed, to which on dubious points they might refer for explanation? In the midst of this. imme- diate doubt, and prospective uncertainty, it remains as a memorable opposition to all that is human in calculation, Jesus Christ gave not to his Followers those writings, which alone would have specifically defined his immediate and remote views, and would have remained as a lasting test of his Religion, to themselves, and all generations; so that without analogy in the annals of man, he. felt wholly insensible to those anxieties which, under such circum- stances, would be inseparable from our nature, and deliberately renounced all that is desirable in life, and even life itself, to effect objects which he took no rational means — to secure! But the subject admits of being viewed in a still stronger light. Christ declared, “The Words that I have spoken, the 207 same shall judge him in the Last Day.” What words? Words! so fleeting! so liable to misconstruction! and yet to words is it that so vast an influence ‘is ascribed !—on which are to hang the future destinies of mankind! Human prudence would have suggested the importance, or rather the necessity of recording in the clearest language those express words, by which mankind were to be judged in the great day of account, but not one expression was thus written, and those who heard the language of Christ, were “unlearned and ignorant men”! If any unassisted facul- ézes had attempted to state the discourses of Christ, these discourses would have descended to our time in an in- accurate and deteriorated state, in which something of the sentiment might have been preserved, but the exact words, (of such stupendous import!) would probably have been represented with no more fidelity than the orations of Cyrus were, and those of other ancient Chieftains who so eloquently harangued their followers at the moment. of conflict. It is obvious that no beneficial result could be expected from a Judicial Act, which merely passed in the Le-- gislature, but which was never recorded and dispersed in undeniable characters, and yet the words of Christ, his perpetual Laws! so briefly expressed! so sententious ! so liable to be perverted by the least infraction on their exact order of utterance, and on which rested such momentous consequences! (which were “ Spirit” and which were “ Life”! were unrecorded, and the Disciples themselves preserved no vestige at the time what those awfully- important words were, nor even charged their memory with collecting them, till after the revolution of many years! What a pause! How might feeble and short-sighted Humanity have trembled, lest this great gift of God to the World should have perished! and the Memorial of a — Saviour have been lost! 208 Regarding the circumstance with a merely human aspect, was it consistent with ordinary foresight, or even with equity itself, that Jesus Christ should have pronounced words to his disciples, which involved as he declared, the eternal happiness or misery of all mankind! and yet that he should have neglected the only certain, and indispensable means for giving to them an undoubted accuracy, and a general dissemination; namely, by distinctly recording those words, that future generations might clearly comprehend the exact foundation, on which they were to be judged in the Last Day? This general abandonment of the means, essential to a proposed end, is utterly irreconcileable with all the principles which habitually regulate man. But if Jesus Christ did not write down his memorable words, he did that which was transcendently more calcu- lated to impress, and demonstrate that the work he had to accomplish was from God. He declared that his kingdom was not of this world, and its maxims therefore he disown- ed. He affirmed that he received not honour from men, and discarding the contrivances that the heart would naturally have suggested, with a dignity and elevation according with his real character, he calmly told his dis- ciples, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, what- ‘soever I have said unto you.” Is this the language of a Man? and how was the promise verified ?—These Ignorant Fishermen did produce Writings, which, in a moral light, infinitely surpass the proudest efferts of human learning. The very words of Christ, bearing, the clearest internal marks of authenticity, were brought again to their remem- brance, and the Holy Spirit so influenced the minds of these unlettered men, that they became the vehicle for giving to Earth, an Immaculate Work, in which se/f 1s annihilated; vanity unknown; impartiality, in its most rigid 209 sense exemplified ; where the individual sentiments-even of the Actors themselves, in panegyrizing their Lord, or reviling his Foes, are repressed ; in which all that is earthly is separated ; and the whole is consolidated into one cohe- rent aggregate, which bears the impress of Heaven, and the stamp of Immortality. Whilst the words, and actions of Christ appeared to common spectators as casual, and unconnected with a majestic series and result, an unseen and interior ma- chinery was in full operation, and a stupendous whole proceeding fast toward its accomplishment. Some intima- tion of this august but invisible ceconomy was given to the Disciples, when, on the Mount of Transfiguration, “two men appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which should accomplish at Jerusalem.” It was a reliance on this ample and miraculous influence which produced in the Saviour that mysterious composure; in circumstances cal- culated to excite anxiety or alarm ; which led him to discard the precautions essential to the success of an earthly scheme ; and which caused him to warn his Disciples, when they were brought before Kings and Governors, for his sake, not to take thought, how, or what they should speak, for that it was not they who spake, but, the Spire of his Father which spake in them. ‘This is the grand solution, which reconciles all difficulties, and throws lustre over the obscure. All must feel, that a few words added to, or haege ea from, many of the Precepts, or Parables of our Lord, would have jarred, and brought the whole down to a com- paratively human level; but they stand at present in a sacred investment of language, which, if they were not guarded by “the plagues which are written in this Book,” none would dare to violate. ‘To furnish one of numerous examples; what a unity, and inimitably condensed meaning appears in the explanation which Christ gave of his Parable 5 ’ . 210 oa of the end of the world.—“ He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the hildren of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the Devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.”* In the attenuated thread of ordinary composition, what space would not have been occupied by this, and many another brief specimen of Biblical Narrative ! | Rousseau declared that the greatest miracle in the Bible was, that Jesus Christ should have found twelve men, like the Apostles, who proved to be such efficient auxiliaries in his cause ; and, on Ais principles, it must have appeared : Wis csiitatty marvellous: but to him who remembers,—the Governor of all hearts, no difficulty will appear in the as- semblagerer the Twelve, nor any wonder be excited, that the Saviour should have abstained from recording his words, and have rejected the round of obvious means for agp bhishintg and perpetuating his Gospel. ‘ r The whole argument is conclusively illustrated by the following consideration. No system was projected by the Apostles. At the Crucifixion of their Lord, they had written nothing, and nothing was written for them, and with frustrated hopes, each said to the other, in despair, “7 goa fishing.” ! But the end was not yet. This was the moment for Omnipotence to make bare his arm. The consummation now began to unfold. Though each of the Apostles had to perform what resembled an insulated and detached work, yet, when the scattered elements were combined, and the CANON OF SCRIPTURE was formed, a Result arose, magnificent as it was harmonious, and which at once disclosed the Invisible Hand by which the “STONE was cut out of the Mountain !” J.C. Bristol, May st, 1824. ADDENDA. | « » JUST as this Second Edition was about to be published, : the First Report of the Plymouth Antinomian Tract Society, was obtained, bearing the signature “Septimus Courteney, President,” and which must recelve a_ brief comment. This “Plymouth Auxiliary Gospel Tract Society,” or — in clearer words, this “Antinomian Tract Society,” was instituted Feb. 12. 1824. The Society being impatient to ‘announce its extraordinary success, has published its Re- ‘port, within two months of its establishment; (April the ‘Sth.) Considering the imposing nature. of the original Prospectus, (see p. 178.)\—“ Twenty Four Commitee-Men” “Eight to form a Quorum,” all gratuitous Labourers; “no funding ;” “no Places;” “no Pensions;” and one. ardent, ‘and universai feeling, actuating every Member, to disprove ‘the OLtp GosPEL, and to exalt. the Nrw; suchas is taught, in its immaculate purity, by Dr. Hawker, and his Clerical and Lay Friends,—what a woeful and unexpected result ! ) This Society, which is, incontrovertibly, in direct oppo- ‘sition to the Church of England (though originating in Clergymen!) which condemns, (in their own elegant phra- -seology) as encouraging a “ Mingle-mangle Gospel,’ the publications of all other Societies; which charges the whole Christian World with a “total ignorance of the Truth,” and which professes a determination to send its own “Genuine Gospel,” “as they are directed to every _ creature!” whose numerous Tracts, (the Report boasts) are now being wafted to Botany Bay; in that felonious Colony, to Legalize Sin, which it has been their object to effect in a, 212 the Mother Country; this Society which adopts the resolution to explode, and remodel the Religious Community ; which is to run down the Bible; the Bartlet’s Building ; The Tracts; the Missionary; the Prayer Book and Homily, with a hundred similar Institutions ; this Society, after its plans have been matured, and all its operations brought into vi- gorous exercise, comes forth, as the result of its unwearied labours, with the following list of Patou and Patronesses, according to the Printed List. | ae . SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DONATIONS. ~ Donations. Subscriptions. ‘a fe 856 ds Lied tb0 Ash Mi... evciscecccsccesevercsacs BAS Ps savor Algar, Mr......cseeeeeeeereeees Sa RR AUN . ae Bennett, Mr.......--..+-++-- RMN) AY en TY 10 6 . 10 6 Bowden, Capt..... oh ok one nee ce en \niebieis 5. cts rs Bal Mr... ee ee eee is ay TAMERS IS a bee Courteney, Rev. Mr......-..> Suebitiale al iheue A Tf SEX. Courteney, Miss.....cccerececeneceeseseres en ie ae Cole, Mr.... eeoeteceseoe eoecaeaeeceoorooereeee 1 ® e ee. =m Crymes, Miss....... has dent Pipe) arctan 4 he PGR? aoe Dechamp, Capt.....- Chee TREES been sie eee SE a, Rook ae Forster, Mrs....-sseseecveresceccesecetees SiO x0 Featherstone, Lieut......--+.+ee- is wide © Ginie’ (inkl eile ea as Graeme, Miss.......+.ee-sseeereesreceseees YDS De Govett, Mr......seceeereeeee ee Porat: Ue OS Oe Govett, Mr. P..eecserecerccserccerseceees eae oe Gilbert, Mr. W.S......---- se Ee tre ieee Ht dee ite Hawker, Rev. Doctor.....-.- signe nce qegiees ee, Oy. 2° ale Fie Hodson, Mrs......«++ Le via Sea Sia Sierras vale OO. ety ‘ Hawker, Miss.......-- erg ae ia ana aia alae ° Hawker, Rev. Thomas ....++++-++++++> shasta’ ye Linnington, Miss.......++e+esers fosveuseeve tO? Moore, Mr. J....--:+5+: pacing (pais de Sit battled Qi rare Norrington, Lieut.....+++-+- sinceieie's secccece Byars Paty’ Pellew, Lady......-eeeseesesseeeeeece dees ee og Scott, Mr. E......+-++- binibiep dibs, Sielegne siaeinele 9 UN, Mae Smith, Miss.......eseeereeererecesers cooee » Ey Stuart, Mrs.......--- oh Me gts Sia so 0a mee iene 2,6 Taylor, Mr. Kingsbridge...... sk a's diplows tee ¢ 410). Tythe, Miss.......seeeseerceeeees NA a Pik A Bike Wallis, Mr...... Si deiek GER he alk 0 MR Oe! 5 oS aibiLs + aired Wallis, Mrs..... bs esp $8 beg ore habe ae Ress Ge coe Westlake, Mrs. Rebecca.....-- QUE, crows 2 25276 Webb, Mrs. By... ecerecenesereascecneece Di isons PAL 3/G8 6 Ol 46 1526 | . ee 213 If any occurrence could open the oes of these deluded Individuals, who are attempting to stem the ocean with a straw, would it not be, the feeble : receive even from their own Friends! — Vhere : “Twenty Four Committee-Men,” with their eaeh ie Donations, and Subscriptions? Where are the Effectual Upholders, composing “the Quorum?” Where are all the Opposers of the “ Funding System!” Where are the men, deserving of, but resolutely denied ‘ Places,” and ‘ Pen- sions? Are they secretly ashamed of the Cause, though willing in compliment to their Leader, like Moles, to work unseen ? The Reader must restrain the smile which might naturally arise. ‘There is danger in the Sub-stratum! Some of the grandest operations in Nature are effected by the most Diminutive Insects, and Antinomians possess facilities for accomplishing zncalculable mischief! With all their con- ‘temptible: means,. it appears, from this First Report, that ‘Short as the period hath been since the Parent Society was established, the Lovers of the TRuE GosPeEt will rejoice to hear that since the Society’s commencement at the close of last year, more than ONE HuNpDRED and Twenty THovusanp Tracts have been issued, and that Twenty AvuxiLiary SocierigEs, in different parts of the Kingdom, have been already established!” Can any serious mind contemplate the dispersion, in the course of a few months of one hundred and twenty thousand of these specious, but most pernicious publications without alarm? and especially, in anticipating the future exertions of this indefatigable Society! Antinomians make up by zeal, and. hardy assertion, what they want in power, and sound argument.—They throw their Papers into all the Shops and Stalls of their respective neighbourhoods :—they denounce, ‘indiscriminately, all the Clergy, and all the Dissenting Ministers, by whom they are surrounded, as being dark, ae 214 and as inculcating false and damnable doctrines ; and at the same time affirm, that Light and saving Truth are ex- ‘clusiv sessed by themselves ! These bold and wicked declarations will produce on | the great mass. of the inconsiderate, disastrous effects ! To despise or to parley longer with the foe, is treacherous pusillanimity ! If Societies of ‘alse Professors are formed to undermine the edifice, built on the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself Big the Chief Corner Stone, Counter Societies should be formed to frustrate their designs, and to oppose them with their own weapons. ‘It becomes the especial duty of the Clergy to take the ead in this essential and salutary opposition ‘to their Recreant Brethren : and with respect to the Low Anti- ‘nomians, ‘who are an opprobrium to a Christian Country, every friend of Religion ought to r sist and expose their Tmpieties, and’ Antichristian Doctrines, with a resolution ‘commensurate with the imperative urgency of the demand. These brief hints, it is hoped, will not be given in vain. PUBLISHED BY THE SAME AUTHOR. . * 4 *, (Cadell, Bookseller, Strand, London.) sd. Malvern Hills, and other Poems ; third edition,.... .... boards 5 Alfred, 2 vols. 24 oe, third edition... 0.02. ci... . boards 10 Metrical Version of the Psalms; second edition,...... boards 5 0 6 0 Fall of Cambria, 2 vols, 24 Books, 8vo. second edition, boards 12 0 Messiah, 1 vol. large 8vo. 28 Books; Part1,...... -...Dboards 10 6 Ditto, foolscap 8vo. 12 Books; Part 2,..........boards 5 0 Dartmoor and other Poems, foolscap 8vo....... rues ace boards 5 0 Selection of Pcems, for Schools, and Young Persons, T2mo., thifd Gillon. 8. vcs. cote eos eae cocks conc pound. °S 04 See The Mr. BABB, whose name appears in this Work, has issued the following Advertisement. In the press, and speedily will be published, (THE REVIEWER REVIEWED; or AN EXAMINATION of the REMARKS in the CHRISTIAN OBSERVER of No- vember, 1823, on “ Cottle’s Strictures on the Plymouth Antinomians.” By the Rev. J. BABB, M. A. of Wadham College, Oxford. Lynn: Printed for and published by E. Mugridge; and sold by A. Paris, 53, Long Acre, London; C. Upham, Exeter ; and J. Trego, Plymouth. ; Ellerton and Henderson, Printers, Gongh Square, London. es _ FULLER, PRINTER, WITHIN THE MARKET GATE, BRISTOL. ee 2 6896 89 _ 1.1012 010 1 ; * ¢, oH Ba ie pee Bites ce SARE a cehe ae = Rt abate x ee te aye if) Ts srl ue Hes itiaee nn Loti io — ae apres ; ; sacciets S Hee : ER ee te, Recher tee x