II. Salvation by the covenant of grace, A DISCOURSE preached in the parifh church of Madeley, April III. A SCRIPTURAL ESSAY on the rewardableness of works, according to the covenant of grace. BRISTOL: Printed by W. PINE, in Wine-Street, 1774- (Price One Shilling and Sixpence.) 1268 PRE FAC E. I. for a preface to the Difcourfe that follows HE firft piece of this Check was defigned it; but as it swelled far beyond my intention, I prefent it to the Reader under the name of An hiftorical Elay; which makes way for the tracts that follow. II. With respect to the Difcourfe, I must mention what engages me to publish it. In 1771 I faw the propofitions called the Minutes. Their author invited me to "review the whole affair." I did fo; and soon found, that I had " leaned too much towards Calvinifm," which, after a mature confideration, appeared to me exactly to coincide with fpeculative Antinomianifm; and the fame year I publicly acknowledged my error in these words: 66 "But whence fprings this almoft general Antino"mianism of our congregations? Shall I conceal the "fore because it festers in my own breaft? Shall I be partial? No: in the name of Him, who is no re"Specter of perfons, I will confefs My fin, and that "of many of my brethren, &c. Is not the Antino"mianilm of hearers fomented by that of preachers? "Does it not become us to take the greatest part of "the blame upon ourselves, according to the old "adage, Like prieft, like people? Is it furprising that "fome of us fhould have an Antinomian audience? "Do we not make or keep it fo? When did we "preach such a practical sermon, as that of our Lord "on the mount? Or write such clofe letters, as the "epiftles of St. John ?" Second Check, p. 64 and 65, to the end of the paragraph. When I had thus openly confeffed, that I was involved in the guilt of many of my brethren, and that I had fo leaned towards fpeculative, as not to have made a proper ftand against practical Antinomianifm; who could have thought, that one of my moft formi A 2 dable dable opponents would have attempted to screen his mistake, behind fuch paffages of a manufcript fermon, which I preached twelve years ago; and of which, by fome means or other, he has got a copy ? I am very far however from recanting that old difcourfe. I ftill think, the doctrine it contains excellent in the main, and very proper to be enforced [tho' in a more guarded manner] in a congregation of hearers violently prejudiced against the first gofpel-axiom. Therefore, out of regard for the grand, leading truth of Christianity, and in compliance with Mr. H-ll's earneft intreaty, [Fin. Stroke, p. 45.] I fend my fermon into the world, upon the following reasonable conditions: (1.) That I shall be allowed to publish it, as I preached it a year ago in my church; namely, with additions in brackets, to make it at once a fuller check to Pharifaifm, and a finishing cheek to Antinomianifm: (2.) That the largeft addition fhall be in favour of free grace: (3.) That no body fhall accuse me of forgery, for thus adding my prefent light to that which I had formerly; and for thus bringing out of my little treasure of experience things new and old: (4.) That the prefs fhall not groan with the charge of difingenuity, if I throw into notes fome unguarded expreffions, which I formerly used without fcruple, and which my more enlightened confcience does not fuffer me to use at prefent: (5.) That my opponent's call to print my fermon, will procure me the pardon of the public, for prefenting them with a plain, blunt difcourfe, compofed for an audience chiefly made up of colliers and ruftics: and laftly,That as I understand English a little better than I did twelve years ago, fhall be permitted to rectify a few French idioms, which I find in my old manuscript; and to connect my thoughts alittle more like an Englishman, where I can do it without the least misrepresentation of the fenfe. If thefe conditions appear unreasonable to those, who will have heaven itself without any condition, I abolish the distinction between my old fermon, and the additions that guard or strengthen it; and refer I ring the reader to the title page, I publifh my discourse on Rom. xi. 5, 6. as a guarded fermon, delivered in my church on Sunday, April the 18th, &c. 1773, exactly eleven years after I preached upon the fame text a fermon useful upon the whole, but in fome places unguarded, and deficient with refpect to the variety of arguments and motives, by which the capital doctrines of free grace and gofpel obedience ought to be enforced. III. With regard to the SCRIPTURAL ESSAY upon the rewardableness, or evangelical worthinefs of works, I fhall juft obferve, that it attacks the grand mistake of the Solifidians, countenanced by three or four words of my old fermon. I pour a flood of fcriptures upon it; and after receiving the fire of my objector, I return it in a variety of fcriptural and rational answers, about the folidity of which the public must decide. IV. The ESSAY ON TRUTH Will, I hope, reconcile judicious moralifts to the doctrine of falvation by faith, and confiderate Solifidians to the doctrine of falvation by the works of faith; reafon and fcripture concurring to fhow the conftant dependance of works upon faith; and the wonderful agreement of the doctrine of present salvation by TRUE faith, with the doctrine of eternal falvation by GOOD works. * I hope, that I do not diffent, in my obfervations upon faith, either from our church, or approved gof. pel-minifters. In their highest definitions of that grace, they confider it only according to the fulness of the Chriftian difpenfation; but my subject has obliged me to confider it alfo according to the difpenfations of John the Baptift, Mofes, and Noah. Believers, under thefe inferior difpenfations, have not always affurance; nor is the affurance they sometimes have fo bright as that of adult Chriftians, Matt. xi. 11. But undoubtedly affurance is infeparably connected with the faith of the Chriftian difpenfation, which was not fully opened till Chrift opened his glorious baptifm on the day of pentecoft, and till his fpiritual kingdom was fet up with power in the heart of his people. No body there A 3. fore |