To All Candid Calvinists in the Church Of England.
LOGICA GENEVENSIS:
OR,
A FOURTH CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM
IN WHICH ST. JAMES’ PURE RELIGION IS DEFENDED AGAINST THE CHARGES, AND ESTABLISHED UPON THE CONCESSIONS, OF MR.
RICHARD AND MR. ROWLAND HILL. IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO
THOSE GENTLEMEN, BY JOHN FLETCHER, A.M., VICAR OF MADELEY. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and (Scriptural) doctrine; for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, 2 Timothy 4:2, 3.
Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. But let brotherly love continue, Titus 1:13; Hebrews 13:1. TO ALL CANDID CALVINISTS IN THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND.
HONOURED AND DEAR BRETHREN, — A student from Geneva, who has had the honour of being, admitted a minister of your Church, takes the liberty of dedicating to you these strictures on GENEVA LOGIC, which were written both for the better information of your candid judgment, and to obtain tolerable terms of peace from his worthy opponents. Some, who mistake blunt truth for sneering insolence, and mild ironies for bitter sarcasms, will probably dissuade you from looking into this FOURTH CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM. They will tell you that “Logica Genevensis is a very bad book,” full of “calumny, forgeries, vile slanders, acrimonious sneers, and horrid misrepresentations.” But candour, which condemns no one before he is heard, which weighs both sides of the question in an impartial balance, will soon convince you, that, if every irony proceeds from spleen and acrimony of spirit, there is as much of both in these four words of my honoured opponent, Pietas Oxoniensis and Goliah Slain,f24 as in all the four Checks; and that I have not exceeded the apostolic direction of my motto, “Rebuke them sharply,” or rather, apotomwv, cuttingly, but “let brotherly love continue.”
I do not deny, that some points of doctrine, which many hold in great veneration, excite pity or laughter in my Checks. But how can I help it? If a painter, who knows not how to flatter, draws to the life an object excessively ridiculous in itself, must it not appear excessively ridiculous in his picture? Is it right to exclaim against his pencil as malicious, and his colours as unfair, because he impartially uses them according to the rules of his art? And can any unprejudiced person expect that he should draw the picture of the night without using any black shades at all? If the charge of “bitterness” do not entirely set you against this book, they will try to frighten you from reading it, by protesting that I throw down the foundation of Christianity, and help Mr. Wesley to place works and merit on the Redeemer’s throne. To this dreadful charge I answer,
(1.) That I had rather my right hand should lose its cunning to all eternity, than use it a moment to detract from the Saviour’s real glory, to whom I am more indebted than any other man in the world.
(2.) That the strongest pleas I produce for holiness and good works, are quotations from the homilies of our own Church, as well as from the Puritan divines, whom I cite preferably to others, because they held what you are taught to call the doctrines of grace.
(3.) That what I have said of those doctrines recommends itself to every unprejudiced person’s reason and conscience.
(4.) That my capital arguments in favour of practical Christianity are founded upon our second justification by the evidence of works in the great day; a doctrine which my opponent himself cannot help assenting to.
(5.) That from first to last, when the meritorious cause of our justification is considered, we set works aside; praying God “not to enter into judgment with us,” or “weigh our merits, but to pardon our offences” for Christ’s sake; and gladly ascribing the whole of our salvation to his alone merits, as much as Calvin or Dr. Crisp does.
(6.) That when the word meriting, deserving, or worthy, which our Lord himself uses again and again, is applied to good works, or good men, we mean absolutely nothing but rewardable, or qualified for the reception of a gracious reward. And,
(7.) That even this improper merit or rewardableness of good works is entirely derived from Christ’s proper merit, who works what is good in us, and from the gracious promise of God, who has freely engaged himself to recompense the fruits of righteousness, which his own grace enables them to produce.
I hope, honoured brethren, these hints will so far break the waves of prejudice which beat against your candour, as to prevail upon you not to reject this little means of information. If you condescend to peruse it, I trust it will minister to your edification, by enlarging your views of Christ’s prophetic and kingly office; by heightening your ideas of that practical religion which the Scriptures perpetually enforce; by lessening your regard for some well-meant mistakes, on which good men have too hastily put the stamp of orthodoxy; and by giving you a more favourable opinion of the sentiments of your remonstrant brethren, who would rejoice to live at peace with you in the kingdom of grace, and walk in love with you to the kingdom of glory. But whether you consent to give them the right hand of fellowship or not, nobody, I think, can be more glad to offer it to you, than he who, with undissembled respect, remains, honoured and dear brethren, your affectionate brother, and obedient servant in Christ, J. FLETCHER.