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pointments would prove him unjust, and he would be lefs good and kind than his depraved creatures; a conclufion to be rejected with abhorrence. We may ftill believe, then, that ૮૬ God has made Chrift, to be fin for us, who knew no fin, that we might be made the righteoufness of God in him."*

But fuppofe no fuch analogical argument was afforded me from God's ways or word; I might reply, that it can only be contrary to justice in God to punish the innocent in the place of the guilty, fhould he punish the innocent perfon against his will. For it is no more unjust in God to accept the sufferings of the Son in man's place, fuppofing the Son to be willing to fuffer, than it would be unjuft in you to accept a fum of money from a kind rich man, who was willing to discharge your insolvent debtor. But Chrift came and fuffered willingly: "Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will." "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No one taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself."

You attempt to make this doctrine harsh and odious, by representing the maintainers of it as looking at Chrift as amiable, but on the Father as a vindictive and forbidding Being. Whatever fpeculative conclufion you may think yourself

2 Cor. v, 21. +Pfalms xl, 7, 8. John x, 17, 18,

at liberty to draw from fuch views; thofe who glory most in the atonement of Christ, and love him moft, do not regard the Father as a vindictive, unlovely Being; but as a reconciled, gracious God. They do indeed look upon God as a jealous God, who will by no means clear the unatoned-for guilty; but they fee him a God of love as well as of juftice. They apprehend that it is to the love of God they owe the coming of Chrift. When they view the Son of God dying for finners, they have far more exalted conceptions of the love and goodness of God, as well as of his juftice, than it is poffible to entertain on the Socinian plan. They exclaim with the Apostle, "God is Love." "In this was manifefted the love of God towards us, because that God fent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 1 John iv. 9.-They boast with the Apostle Paul, "God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet finners Chrift died for us," and they reafon with him: "if God fpared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him alfo freely give us all things."*

I have now, I trust, most fully fhewn that the two fundamental Doctrines of the Divinity and Atonement of Chrift, are indifputably the * Rom. viii. 32.

Doctrines of the Word of God. If fo, your pamphlet is proved to be an unfcriptural attack upon those pillars of hope on which the eternal expectations of millions are entirely rested; and you yourself to be in the number of those who have rejected the Son of God, and trodden under foot that blood which was fhed to cleanfe you from fin and redeem you to God. Here then I might stop; for if Chrift is God, and has died for our fins; whether the Doctrines of Original Depravity, of the Operations of the Divine Spirit, and of Faith in Chrift for the Forgiveness of Sins, be unfcriptural or no, enough has been faid to fhew, that you deny that which is the principal thing to be believed in order to Salvation. "For he that hath the Son hath Life, but he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life, &c.* The practical belief of the Depravity of our Nature, and the neceffity of the Agency of the Divine Spirit, being, however, of fuch importance, that without them, these are admitted in vain; we will go on to examine how far they are alfo to be found in facred Scripture, after firft briefly adverting to your fifth Letter on the fubject of Election.

* 1 John v. xii.

LETTER IV.

YOUR fifth Letter is upon the fubject of

of

Election, in which, by fhewing that God providentially called fome public characters to their allotted offices, you would perfuade your Readers that you have proved, that no perfon is chofen of God, or called for his own personal good and falvation, by the particular effectual grace God. How far they ought to depend upon you as a safe guide, whose affertion may be admitted for proof, will be feen in my next Letter, which will treat of the Influences of the Holy Spirit. Election being a fubject upon which ferious Chriftians, "who hold the Head,"* have been far from thinking quite alike, in almoft any Age of Chriftianity; (though much more nearly agreed, in fact, than they have generally imagined) I decline entering largely into it, as you oppofe and mifreprefent what, in terms at leaft, many ferious Chriftians do not contend for. Let it fuffice then to fay, that all fincere humble Chriftians, proceed fo far in ftricteft harmony, as heartily to confefs, that by the Grace of God alone, they are what they are in

* Col. ii, 19.

Faith and Holinefs. Your remarks, p. 68, 69, only ferve to encrease my regret at the departure of pious perfons from the Established Church of this Land, in which all extremes of Calvinism and Arminianifm are avoided, and in which, therefore, all moderate men may agree to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I have feen that two great evils have generally followed fuch a feparation: The one is, that they who depart from her Communion, too often depart after a time, from her Doctrines alfo ; and the other, that fhould Sects retain the pure Doctrines of Chriftianity, by their feparation they afford a handle to the Enemies of thofe Doctrines to exult againft the Truth, as if divided againft itself, and calculated only to engender ftrife, faction and confufion. It is lamentably true, that the polemic advocates for Arminian and Calviniftic fentiments, have given too much ground for fuch afperfions; they have each adopted the unmanly expedient of drawing conclufions from their opponents' views which are unfair and forced, and by this means, have furnished the common enemy with weapons. One Inftance occurs, (page 71) wherein you revive a ftale mifrepresentation of the advocates for Election, as holding that, "a great part of the Human Race are, without any will of their own, hurried thro' Life to eternal perdition, independent of their good or evil conduct."

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