Section 1.
SECTION 1.
The cause of the misunderstandings of pious Protestants — The contrary mistakes of Zelotes and Honestus, who are invited to try their doctrines by the Scripture Scales — The manner of using them, and the need of them in our days.
FIRST and second causes, leading and subordinate motives, may perfectly agree together. The hinder wheels of a chariot need not be taken off because they are not the fore wheels. It would be absurd to pull down the left wing of a palace, merely because it is opposed to the right. And a man makes himself ridiculous who destroys one of his scales because it accidentally outweighs the other: for both scales may recover their equilibrium, and answer the best of purposes.
Such, if I mistake not, is the necessary distinction, and such the nice union, that subsist between those two opposite and yet harmonizing, exploded and yet capital doctrines of the Gospel, which we call free grace and free will. To demonstrate that their due conjunction in our hearts forms the spiritual marriage of faith, and gives birth to all good works, I have ventured upon the construction of “the Scales,” which the reader will find in these pages. If their composition is human, their materials are Divine; for they consist of plain scriptures, chiefly placed under two heads of doctrine, which, for their justness and importance, may be called the weights of the sanctuary.
(1.) Our salvation is of God.
(2.) Our damnation is of ourselves.
The first of these propositions is inseparably connected with the doctrine of free grace; nor can the second stand but upon the doctrine of free will: two doctrines these which the moralists and the Solifidians have hitherto thought incompatible; and about which some of them have contended with the utmost acrimony of temper and language.
Even men of piety have rashly entered the lists, some against free grace, others against free will; warmly opposing what they should have mutually defended. The cause of their misunderstanding is very singular. They are good men upon the whole, therefore they can never oppose truth as truth: and as they are not destitute of charity, they cannot quarrel merely for quarreling’s sake. Whence then springs their continual contest? Is it not from gross partiality, excessive jealousy, wilful inattention, and glaring prejudice? They will not look Gospel truth full in the face: they are determined to stand on either side of her, and by that means seldom see above the half of her beauty.
But all the Protestants are not so partial: for while the Solifidians gaze upon the side face of Christianity on the right hand, and the moralists on the left; her unprejudiced lovers, humbly sitting at her feet, and beholding her in full, admire the exquisite proportion of all her features; an advantage this which the opposite rivals can never have in their present unfavourable position. Therefore, while a mere moralist considers as “enthusiastic rant,” the doctrine of free grace extolled by the Solifidians; and while a bound-willer brands as “dreadful heresy,” the doctrine of free will espoused by the moralists; an unprejudiced Christian equally embraces the pretended “enthusiasm” of the one, and the imaginary “heresy” of the other; being persuaded, that the different sentiments of those partial contenders for free grace and free will are only the opposite truths which form the complete beauty of genuine Protestantism.
This contrary mistake of the moralists, and of the Solifidians, is attended with the most fatal consequences; for, as they receive only one part of the truth, they think to do God service by attacking the other, which they rashly take for a dangerous error; and, so far as the influence of their contrary misconception reaches, the whole truth is destroyed. Primitive Christianity, in their busy hands, seems to be in as much danger of losing her capital doctrines, as the elderly man in the fable was of losing his hair between his two wives: one was young, and could not bear his partly silvered locks; the other, who was old, wanted him to be altogether as gray as herself. Both accordingly fell to work; and in a little time the young wife had so plucked out his white hairs, and the old woman his black ones, that he remained absolutely bald.
Will you see their ridiculous conduct exemplified in the religious world? Consider Honestus, the sedate moralist; and Zelotes, the warm Solifidian. HONESTUS, who values the ten commandments far above the three creeds, seldom dwells upon Christ’s redeeming love and atoning blood. Out of the church he rarely mentions the inspiration of God’s Spirit, or the comforts of the Holy Ghost; and it is well if he does not think that our addresses to the Mediator are remains of Papistical idolatry. He piques himself much upon his honesty; and hoping that his free will, best endeavours, and good works, are almost sufficient to save him, he leaves the doctrine of a sinner’s justification by faith to Zelotes and Paul. ZELOTES flies to the other extreme. His creed is all; and, so far as decency permits, he insinuates that believers may break the first and second commandment with Solomon, the third with Peter, the fifth with Absalom, the sixth and seventh with David, the eighth with Onesimus, and the two last with Ananias and Sapphira; in short, that they may go any length in sin without endangering in the least their title to a crown of glory. He thinks that the contrary doctrine is rank popery. Some of his favourite topics are:
(1.) God’s unconditional election of some to finished salvation; an election this which necessarily includes God’s unconditional appointment of the rest of mankind to finished damnation!
(2.) An unchangeable fondness of God, and a partial atonement of Christ, for a comparatively small number of the children of men; a fondness and an atonement these, which include also an unchangeable wrath against, and an absolute reprobation of all the world beside. And,
(3.) A zealous decrying of free will and sincere obedience, under the specious pretence of exalting Christ and free grace. As for the justification of a BELIEVER by works and not by faith only, he leaves it to Honestus, Bellarmine, and St. James.
If the sum of Christ’s religion is, Cordially believe, and sincerely obey; and if Honestus makes almost nothing of saving faith, while Zelotes makes next to nothing of sincere obedience, is it not evident that between them both genuine Protestantism is almost destroyed? If I may compare Christianity to the woman that St. John saw in one of his visions; how barbarously is she used by those two partial lovers! Both pretend to have the greatest regard for her: both have publicly espoused her: both perhaps equally recommend her from the pulpit: but, alas! both, though without any bad design, use her with the greatest unkindness; for while Honestus divests her of her peculiar doctrines and mysteries, Zelotes robs her of her peculiar precepts and sanctions. Thus the one (if I may carry the allegory so far) puts out her right, and the other her left eye: the one stabs her in the right side, and the other in the left: and this they do upon a supposition that as soon as all their dreadful operations shall be performed, Christianity will shine in the perfection of her native beauty.
While the heavenly woman, mutilated by those partial lovers, lies thus bleeding and deformed in the midst of spiritual Egypt, LORENZO casts his eyes upon her; and starting back at the sight, he wisely protests that he cannot embrace so deformed a religion: and it is well if, in this critical moment, a painted Jezebel, who courts his affections, does not ensnare his unwary soul. She calls herself Natural Religion, but her right name is Skepticism in infancy, Infidelity in youth, Fatalism in ripe years, and Abaddon in old age. Guilty, thrice guilty will Honestus and Zelotes prove, if they continue to drive the hesitating youth into the arms of that syren, by continuing to render Christianity monstrous in his eyes!
O mistaken men of God, before you have caused Lorenzo’s ruin, be persuaded to review your doctrine; nor refuse to weigh it in the balance of the sanctuary. If fine gold loses nothing in the fiercest fire, what can your sentiments lose in my Scripture Scales? Let cheats dread to have their weights tried by the royal standard; but do not you start from the trial. I acknowledge your honesty beforehand. If your weights should prove false, your reputation is safe. My readers will do you justice; they will perceive that, far from having had any intention to deceive others, you yourselves have been the dupes of your own prejudice; thus will your mistakes be found out to your profit, and not to your shame.
The error of Honestus and that of Zelotes being opposite, so must be their method of using the Scripture Scales. Honestus, who inclines to the neglect of Christ, and to the contempt of free grace, must weigh himself against the scriptures which follow No. I, and batter down Pharisaic dotages; that is, he must read those scriptures over with attention, asking his conscience if he honestly insists upon them as the primary truths of Christianity; and if he may not rank with modern Pharisees, so far as he opposes or despises those scriptures. On the other hand, Zelotes, who leans to the disregard of sincere obedience, good works, and free will, must weigh himself against No. II, under which he will find the scriptures that oppose the Antinomian delusion, confessing that, so far as he sets them aside, he clips away the secondary truths of the Gospel, mangles Bible Christianity, and strengthens the hands of immoral gospellers and flagitious Antinomians. If Zelotes and Honestus will not weigh their doctrine in the Scripture Scales, Candidus will do it for them. Prejudice has not yet captivated him, nor is he unacquainted with Church history. He believes that the pope himself is not infallible. He knows all that glitters as Gospel, is not Gospel gold. He remembers, that for several hundred years the worship of a consecrated wafer was esteemed a capital part of “orthodoxy” all England over; and he has observed, that the cautions of my motto are particularly given with respect to those who say, I am Christ, that is, “I represent him as his Gospel minister, his faithful ambassador; I thank God that I am not like that Methodist ranter, or that dreadful heretic.” In a word, Candidus is modest enough not to think any part of Scripture beneath his notice; and he is not such a bigot as to suppose it a crime to compare spiritual things with spiritual; and to make the candle of truth burn brighter, by snuffing away the black excrescence of error.
To you, therefore, Candidus, I particularly dedicate my Scripture Scales. Despise them not at a time when the Gospel gold, the coin current in the Church, is far lighter in proportion than the material gold was last year in these kingdoms; — at a time when the Antinomians have so filed away the arms of the King of kings, that it is hard to distinguish whether they are quartered with a dove, a goose, or a hawk; a lamb, a lion, or a goat; — at a time when the Solifidians have so clipped the royal motto, that many, instead of “holiness,” inadvertently read “filthiness unto the Lord;” — at a time when, on the other hand, Pharisaic moralists make it their business so to deface the head of the King of saints on the Gospel coin, that you might take it for the head of Seneca, or that of M. Antonine; — at a time when dealers in orthodoxy publicly present you with one half of the golden truth, which they want to pass for the whole, — at a time when some openly assert, that dung is gold — that impure doctrines are the pure Gospel; and that gold is “dung” — that good works are “dross;” — at such a time, I say, stand upon your guard, Candidus. Beware of men; beware of me; nor use my Scales till you have tried them by the Old and New Testament, those balances of the sanctuary, which you have at home. But if, upon close examination, you find that they differ chiefly in cheapness, size, and conveniency, adopt the invention; and when you are going to read a religious book, or to hear a sermon, imitate the prudent trader, who goes to receive money; take your scales, and use them according to the following directions: —
1. Keep them even. Let not the strings of your entangled affections for this or that preacher, or your attachment to one or another party, give a hasty preponderance to either scale. Fairly suspend your judgment, till it honestly turn by the full weight of truth and evidence. Consider that the Lord is a God of knowledge, by whom actions are weighed; and call upon him for impartiality; remembering that with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
2. Please to observe, that preaching the doctrines which follow No. I. does not prove that a minister is an Antinomian, any more than preaching the doctrines which follow No. II, proves that he is a Pharisee; but preaching them in such a manner as directly or indirectly attacks, opposes, or explains away the doctrines in the other scale; in open defiance of one half of the scriptures, which represent free grace and holy free will as the flux and reflux of Divine grace, by which alone the city of God flourishes, and through which only her commerce with heaven can be profitably carried on. If, therefore, you hear a man say, “I was by nature a child of wrath, and by practice the chief of sinners: not by works of righteousness which I have done, but by grace I am saved,” &c, set him not down for a son of voluntary humility. And if he cries out, “I have lived in all good conscience unto this day, — touching the righteousness which is in the law, I am blameless: be followers of me: work out your own salvation: in so doing you shall save yourself,” &c, do not rank him with the barefaced sons of pride: but look into both scales; and if you find that he honestly uses ALL the weights of the sanctuary; and does the two Gospel axioms justice, as St. Paul, acknowledge him a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
3. Consider times, persons, places, circumstances, and subjects; nor imitate the unreasonable scrupulosity of the man who will make no more allowance for the fair wear of a good old guinea, than for the felonious diminishing of the coin that was delivered last week at the mint. Do not make a man an offender for a word, or a phrase; no, not for such unscriptural phrases as “the imputed righteousness of Christ,” and “sinless” perfection.” Nor forget, that, although error is never to be propagated, yet all the branches of truth can never be displayed at once; and grant a man time to unfold his sentiments before you accuse him of countenancing Pharisaic or Antinomian dotages: otherwise you might charge St. Paul with Solifidianism, and Christ himself with Pharisaical errors.
4. Above all, remember that, although you have all orthodoxy and all faith, you are nothing without humility and love: therefore, when you weigh a preacher’s doctrine, throw into his scale two or three grains of the charity that is not puffed up, thinketh no evil, and hopeth all things consistently with Scripture and reason. If you neglect this caution, you will slide into the severity of a lordly inquisitor; or at least into the implicit faith of a tame Papist: and the moment this is the case, throwing one scale away, and casting all your weights into the other, you will become a blind follower of the first warm preacher that shall hit your fancy, work upon your passions, foment your prejudices, tickle your itching ears, or encourage your party spirit; whether he be Honestus or Gallio, Elymas or Zelotes.