1 and all kinds of mufic recommends the pompous delufion: The enthufiaftic multitudes are fired into univerfal applaufe: In Nebuchadnezzar's fenfe of the word, they are all orthodox; they all believe the gospel of the day, "Great is the Diana of the Babylonians." All people, nations, and languages fall down before her. But the day is not loft: Shadrach has not yet bowed the knee to Baal: Nor have his two friends yet deferted him: "What! three! "Yes, three only. Nor are they unequally matched :-One Shadrach against all people! One Meshach, against all nations! One Abednego against all languages!-One Luther, one Protestant against all the world! O ye iron-pillars of truth ye true Proteftants of the day, my exulting foul meets you in the plain of Dura, Next to him who witneffed alone a good confeffion before Pontius Pilate, of you I learn to protest against triumphant error. Truth and a furnace for us! The truth-the whole truth as it is in Jefus, and a burning fiery furnace for true Proteftants! And fhall we forget thee, O thou man greatly belov ed-Thou pattern of undaunted Proteftants? Shall we filently pafs over the bold protest against the foolish, abfolute, irreversible decree of the day? No, Daniel: We come to pay our tribute of admiration to thy bleffed memory, and to learn of thee also a leffon of true proteftantifm. Confider him, my brethren. His fworn enemies watch him from the furrounding palaces; but he believes in the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and his fearless foul has already vanquished their common lions. He opens his window, he looks towards defolate Jerufalem, with bended knees he prefents his daily fupplication for her profperity, with uplifted hands he enters his jewish protest against the Perfian ftatute; and, animated by his example, I enter my chriftian proteft against the Calvinian decree. If Daniel in fight of the lions, durft testify his contempt of an abfurd and cruel decree, wantonly impofed upon his king; by which decree the king hindered his fubjects from offering any true prayer b 2 • for B ་ for a month, under pretence of afferting his own abfolute fovereignty; fhall I be afhamed to enter my protest against a worfe decree, abfurdly impofed upon the Almighty on the very fame abfurd pretence ? a decree which hinders the Saviour of the world from • praying for the world? (fee p. 84,)—a decree, which Calvin himself had the candor to call “horribile † decretum?" O how much better is it to impose upon an earthly king a decree restraining the Perfians from praying aright for thirty days, than to impofe upon the King of kings a decree hindering the majority of men, in all countries and ages, from praying once aright in all their life! And if Darius ftained his goodness by enacting, that thofe who difobeyed his UN-FORCIBLE decree, fhould be caft into the den of lions, and devoured in a moment; how do they stain 'God's goodness, who teach us as openly as they dare, 'that he will cast into the den of devils, and cause to 'be devoured by flames unquenchable, all those whom this FORCIBLE decree binds either not to pray at all, or to offer up only hypocritical prayers?—I PROTEST against doctrines of grace, which cannot ftand without fuch doctrines of wrath.-I PROTEST against an exalting of Chrift, which fo horribly debafes God. I PROTEST against a new-fangled gofpel, which holds forth a robe of finished falvation lined with fuch irreverfible and finished damnation. 6 Again: If Mofes had courage enough in an hea'then country, and in the midst of his enemies, to enter his PROTEST against the oppreffive decree, by which Pharoah required of the Ifraelites their ufual tale of bricks, when he refused them fewel to burn them with: Shall I be afraid in this Proteftant-kingdom, and in the midst of my friends, to bear alfo my teftimony against the error of Honeftus ?—an error this, which confifts in afferting, that our gra'cious God has decreed, that we shall work our own falvation without having firft life and ftrength to work imparted to us in a state of initial falvation? '-without See a fhort account of that decree, p. 145. ་ -without being FIRST helped by his free-grace to do 'whatever he requires of us in order to our eternal • falvation? Shall fuch a fuppofed decree as this, be countenanced by a filence that gives confent? No: I muft, I do alio enter my protest against it, as being contrary to divine goodnels, derogatory to Chrift's ' merits, fubverfive of the penitent's hope, deftructive of the believer's joy, unfcriptural, irrational. And agreeably to our tenth article I protest: (1) in oppofition to pharifaic PRIDE, that we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, WITH• OUT the grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will. And (2) in oppofition to pharifaic BIGOTRY I proteft, upon the proofs which follow, that God's faving grace has appeared in different de'grees to all men; PREVENTING (not FORCING) them, that they may have a good will, and WORKING WITH [Note: our church does not fay, DOING ALL FOR] them, when they have that good will. And I hope, that when my Proteftant brethren will be acqua nted with the merits of the cause, they will equally ap prove of my anti-folifidian, and of my anti-pharifaic proteft. 4 Bur, fhall a blind zeal for truth carry me beyond the bounds of love? Shall I hate Zelotes and Honeftus, because I think it my duty to bear my full testimony against their errors? God forbid! I have enter ed two protefts as a divine, and now permit me, my Proteftant-brethren, to enter a third as a plain chrif tian. Before the Searcher of hearts I once more proteft, that I make a great difference between the perfons of good men and their opinions,, be these ever so pernicious. The God who loves me the God whom I love the God of love and truth teaches me to give error no quarter, and to confirm my love towards the good men who propagate it; not knowing what they do, or believing that they do God fervice. And I humbly hope, that their good intentions will, in fome degree, excufe the mischief done by their bad tenets. b. 3. Bur But in the mean time mifchief, unfpeakable mifchief is done, and the spreading plague must be ftopped. If in trying to do it as foon and as effectually as poffible, I prefs hard upon Zelotes and Honeftus, and without ceremony drive them to a corner, I proteft, it is only to difarm them, that I may make them fubmit to Chrift's eafy yoke of evangelical moderation, aud brotherly kindnefs. A polemical writer ought to be a champion for the Truth; and a champion for the truth who draws only a wooden fword, or is afraid lovingly to ufe a steel one, fhould, I think, be hiffed out of the field of controverfy, as well as the difputant, who goes to Bilingfgate for duft, mud, and a dirty knife; and the wretch, who purpofely miffes his opponent's arguments, that he may bafely ftab his character. I beg therefore, that the reader would not impute to "a bad fpirit," the keennefs which I indulge for confcience's fake; affuring him that fevere as I am fometimes upon the error of my antagonists, I not only love, but also truly esteem them, Zelotes on account of his zeal for Chrift, Honeftus on account of his attachment to fincere obedience, and both on account of their genuine, tho' mistaken, piety. Do not think however, that I would purchase their friendship by giving up one of my fcales, that is, one half of the bible. Far be the mean compliance from a true Proteftant. I hope that I fhall cease to breathe, before I ceafe to enter protests again ft antinomian faith and pharifaic works, and against the mistakes of good men, who for want of fcripture-scales honeftly weigh the truth in a falfe balance, by which they are deceiv ed first, and with which they afterwards inadvertently deceive others. But, altho I would no more yield to their bafe af Jertions or inconclufive arguments, than to hard names or Soft Speeches; I hope, my honoured brethren, that they and you will always find me open to, and thankful for every reproof, admonition, and direction, which is properly fupported by the two pillars of proteftantifm -found -found Reafon t and plain Scripture: For, if I may depend upon the fettled fentiments of my mind, and the warm feelings of my heart, I am determined as well as you, to live and die a confifient bible chriftian. And, fo long as I fhall continue in that refolution, I hope you will permit me to claim the honour of ranking with you, and of subscribing myself, BRETHREN AND FATHERS, Your affectionate brother, and obedient A true Proteftant. By found reafon I mean the light of the world---the true light which enlightens every man that comes into the world. POSTSCRIPT. Containing fome frictures upon a new publication of Richard Hill, Efq. time epie one of my neighbours favour'd me with the fight of a pamphlet, which had been hawk'd about my parish by the news-man. It is entitled Three Letters written by Richard Hill, Efq; to the Rev. John Fletcher, &c. It is a fecond Finishing Stroke, in which that gentleman gives his "reafons for declining any farther controverfy relative to Mr. Wefley's principles." ." He quits the field: but it is like a brave Parthian. He not only shoots his own arrows as he retires, but borrows all those of two perfons whom he calls " a very eminent minifter in the church of England," and "a lay gentleman of great learning and abilities. As I fee neither argument nor fcripture in the performances of thofe two new auxiliaries, I fhall take no notice of their ingrafted productions. |