himself gives us of it, in Mark xvi. 16. For though he speaks there of the peculiar gospel-dispensation, which he opened, his words may, in some sense be applied to every gos pel-dispensation. Preach the gospel;-He that believeth [in the light of his dispensation, supposing he does it with the heart unto righ teousness] shall be saved, according to the privileges of his dispensation: Here you have a holy doctrine of Grace: But he that believeth not shall be damned: Here you have a graci ous doctrine of Justice. For (supposing a man has a gracious capacity to believe in the light of his dispensation) there is no Antino mian grace in the Promise, and no free-wrath in the Threatening, which compose what our Lord calls the Gospel: But the conditional Promise exhibits a righteous doctrine of Grace, and the conditional Threatening dis plays a gracious doctrine of Justice.

The gospel, in general, branches itself out into four capital dispensations, the last of which is most eminently called The Gospel, because it includes and perfects all the preceding displays of God's grace and justice towards man. Take we a view of these four dispensations, beginning at the lowest, viz. Gentilism.

I. Gentilism (which is frequently called natural religion, and might with propriety be called the gospel of the Gentiles;) Gentilism, I say, is a dispensation of Grace and Justice, which St. Peter preaches and describes in these words: "In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness [according to his light] is accepted of him :" These words contain a holy doctrine of Grace, which is inseparably connected with this holy doctrine of Justice: "In every nation he that feareth not God and worketh not righteousness [according to his light] is not accepted of him.”

II. Judaism, which is frequently called the Mosaic Dispensation, or the Law, that is (according to the first meaning of the Hebrew word, the doctrine or the instruction) and which might with propriety be called the Jewish gospel;-Judaism, I say, is that peculiar display of the doctrines of Grace and Justice, which was chiefly calculated for the meridian of Canaan, and is contained in the Old Testament; but especially in the five Books of Moses. The prophet Samuel sums it all up in these words, "Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart [according to the law, i. e. the doctrine of Moses] for consider how great things he hath done for you [his peculiar people:] But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed," 1 Sam. xii. 21. In this gospel-dispensation also the doctrine of Grace goes hand in hand with the doctrine of Justice. Every book in the Old Testament confirms the truth of this assertion.

III. The Gospel of John the Baptist,

which is commonly called the baptism of John, in connexion with the gospel, or bap. tism, which the apostles preached, before Christ opened the glorious baptism of his own Spirit on the day of Pentecost; this gospel-dispensation, I say, is the Jewish gospel improved into infant Christianity. Or, if you please, it is Christianity falling short of that indwelling power from on high, which is called The kingdom of God come with power. This gospel is chiefly found in the four gospels. It clearly points out the person of Christ, gives us his history, holds forth his mediatorial law; and, leading on to the perfection of Christianity, displays with increasing light; 1. The doctrines of Grace, which kindly call the chief of sinners to eternal salvation through the practicable means of repentance, faith, and obedience: And 2. The doctrines of Justice, which awfully threaten sinners with destruction, if they finally neglect to repent, believe and obey.

The capital difference between this gospeldispensation, and the Jewish gospel, consists in this: The Jewish gospel holds forth Christ about to come, in types and prophecies: but this gospel displays the fulfilment of the Jewish prophecies, and without a typical veil points out Christ already come. Again: "The political part of the Jewish gospel admits of some temporary indulgencies, with respect to divorse, the plurality of wives, &c. which indulgencies are repealed in the Christian institution, where morality is carried to the greatest height, and enforced by the strongest motives. But, on the other hand, the ceremonial part of the gospel of Christ, grants us many indulgencies with respect to sabbaths, festivals, washings, meats, "places of worship, &c. For it binds upon us only the two unbloody, significant rites, which the Scriptures call Baptism and the Lord's Supper; freeing us from shedding human blood in circumcision, and the blood of beasts in daily sacrifices: An important freedom_this, which St. Paul calls The [ceremonial] liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and for which he so strenuously contends against the judaizing preachers, who would bring his Galatian converts under the bloody yoke of circumcision, and Jewish bondage.

IV. The [perfect] gospel of Christ, is frequently called The Gospel,only; on account of its fulness, and because it contains whatever is excellent in the above-described gospel-dispensations We may truly say, therefore, that perfect Christianity, or the complete gospel of Christ, is gentilism, judaism, and the baptism of John, arrived at their full maturity. This perfected gospel, is found, then, initially in the four Books, which bear the name of Gospel, and perfectively in the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. The difference between this perfected gospel, and the gospel which was preached before the day of Pen

tecost, consists in this capital article: before that day, our Lord, and his forerunner John the Baptist, foretold, that Christ should baptise with the Holy Ghost; and Christ promised the indwelling Spirit. He said, He dwelleth with you, and shall [then] be in you.Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. But the full gospel of Christ, takes in the full dispensation of Christ's Spirit, as well as the full history of Christ's life, death, and resurrection; comprehending the glad news of the descent of the Holy Spirit, as well as the joyful tidings of the assension of the Son: And therefore, its distinguishing character is thus laid down by St. Peter, "Jesus, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he bath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. The promise is unto you [that repent and believe.] We are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God [since the day of Pentecost] hath given to them that obey him:" For before Christ's ascension, the Evangelists could say, "The Holy Ghost is not yet given [in its christian fulness] because Christ is not yet glorified." Compare Acts ii. 33. &c. with Acts v. 32. and John vii. 39.

This gospel is the richest display of divine Grace and Justice, which takes place among men in the present state of things. For Christ's sake the Holy Spirit is given as an indwelling, sanctifying Comforter. Here is the brightest doctrine of Grace? He is thus given to them that obey; and, of consequence, he is refused to the disobedient. Here is the highest doctrine of Justice, so far as the purpose of God, according to the elections of grace and justice, actually takes place in this life, before the second coming of Christ. These two last clauses are of peculiar importance.

1. I say in this life, because, after death, two great dispensations, of grace and justice will yet take place, with respect to every man: The one in the day of death, when Christ shall say to each of us, Thou shalt be with me in paradise, or, Thou shalt go to thy own place: And the other in the day of judgment, when our Lord will add, come, ye blessed, or, go, ye cursed. Then shall the gospel-mystery of God, which equally displays the doctrine of Grace and of Justice, be fully accomplished.

2. I have added the clause, before the second coming of Christ, because in the Psalms, Prophets, Acts, Epistles, and especially in the Revelation, we have a variety of promises, that in the day of his displaying power, Christ will come in his glory, to judge among the heathen, to wound even kings in the day of his wrath, to root up the wicked, to fill the places with their dead bodies, to smite in sunder Anti-Christ, and the heads over divers

countries, and to lift up his triumphant head on this very earth, where he once bowed his wounded head, and gave up the Ghost. Compare Psalm cx. with Acts i. 11.-2 Thess. i. 10.-Rev. xix. &c. In that great day, another gospel-dispensation shall take place. We have it now in prophecy, as the Jews had the gospel of Christ's first Advent: but when Christ shall come to destroy the wicked, to be [actually] glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe in that day, ministers of the gospel shall no more prophecy, but, speaking a plain, historical truth, they shall lift up their voices as "the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings, saying, Allelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth;—the marriage of the Lamb is come;-his wife [the church of the first-born] has made herself ready :-Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection;--he reigns with Christ a thousand years.-Blessed are the meek, for they do inherit the earth.-The times of refreshing are come, and he has sent Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you; whom the heaven did receive [till this solemn season; but now are come] the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began," Rev. xix. 20, Matt. v. 5, Acts iii. 19, &c. May the Lord hasten this gospel-dispensation! And, till it take place, may "the Spirit and the Bride say, Come!"

This being promised, it will not be difficult to give the reader a just idea of the grand controversy, which has torn the churches of Christ, from the days of Augustine and Pelagius, and which has lately been revived among us on the following occasion.

In the year 1770, Mr. Wesley, in the Minutes of a Conference which he held with the Preachers in his connexion, advanced some propositions the manifest tendency of which is to assert, that the doctrine of Justice is an essential part of the gospel; and that when we have been afraid to preach them, as well as the doctrines of Grace, we have been partial dispensers of the truth, and have leaned too much towards Calvinism: that is, towards a system of doctrine, which in a great degree, explains away the doctrines of Justice, to make more room for the doctrines of Grace.

Some good people, who imagined that the doctrines of impartial Justice have little or nothing to do with the gospel, were not only highly displeased with Mr. Wesley's propositions, but greatly alarmed at the word merit which is warily used in one of them, to intimate that the doctrines of Justice and the day of Judgment must fall to the ground, if every kind of merit or desert is banished from the gospel; Justice being a virtue which, from an impartial tribunal, "renders to every man according to his works," that is, according to the worthiness or unworthiness, or, as

some express it, according to his merit or demerit.

A regard for the doctrines of Justice, and a fear lest Antinomian doctrines of grace, and dreadful doctrines of free-wrath, should be still entertained by my friends, as the genuine doctrines of grace, engaged me to vindicate those obnoxious propositions, or rather the doctrines of Justice held forth therein. And this, I hope, I have done, in a series of Checks to Antinomianism,-or of tracts against an unscriptural doctrine of grace,-a doctrine of Grace, torn from the scripturedoctrine of Justice. In order to rescue the doctrines of Justice, I have endeavoured to prove, that no man is born an absolute reprobite in Calvin's sense of the word; that God is loving to every man, for Christ's sake; and that of consequence, there is a gospel-dispen sation for every man, though it should be only that which is called Gentilism. I have shewn the cruelty of those opinions, which directly or indirectly doom to eternal perdition all the Heathens, who never read the Law of Moses, or heard the Gospel of Christ. I have evinced, by a variety of arguments, that nothing can be more unscriptural than to represent the law of Moses [i. e. the Jewish gospel as a graceless doctrine of justice; and the law of Christ [or the Christian gos. pel] as a lawless doctrine of grace. By this means I have defended, so far as lay in me, both the Jewish doctrines of Grace, and the Christian doctrines of Justice. And by demonstrating, that the scripture doctrines of Grace are inseparably connected with the scripture doctrines of Justice, I flatter myself to have opened the way for the re-union of the two partial gospels of the day; the capital error of which consists either in excluding the doctrines of Grace from the doctrines of Justice, which is the error of all rigid free-willers; or in excluding the doctrines of Justice from the doctrines of Grace, which is the mistake of all rigid bound-willers.

"What," (says one of these partial defenders of the doctrines of Grace) "will you stil persist to legalize the gospel? Do you not know, that the word Gospel, in the original, means good news, or a good message, and therefore must denote doctrines of Grace, abstracted from all severity of what you call the doctrines of Justice?"-To this plausible objection, which has deluded thousands of simple souls, I auswer,

2. If the hand of God is a good hand when it resists the proud, as well as when it gives grace to the humble; and if his arm was a merciful arm, when it overthrew [daring] Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, as well as when it made [obedient] Israel to pass through the midst of it: (see Psalm 136,) why cannot a message from God which requires practicable obedience, and is enforced by promises of gracious rewards in case of compliance, and by threatenings of righteous punishment, in case of non-compliance ;why cannot, I say, such a message be called a good message, or gospel? 3. Why should not a revelation from God be a good revela. tion, or a gospel, when it displays the severity of his justice towards those who reject his gracious offers? as well as the tenderness of his compassion towards those who accept them; especially if we consider, that the first intention of the denunciations of his vindictive justice, is to excite the godly fear, which endears offers of mercy to sinners, and is in them the beginning of wisdom? 4. If, in the Old Testament, the sweetest and most joyful messages of God's grace are called Law; and if, in the New Testament, the most terrible denunciations of indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, are called Gospel; nothing in the world can be more unscriptural and absurd, than the Antinomian Babel erected by some zealous Evangelists, who teach, that the Law of God is nothing but the doctrine of merciless justice; and that the Gospel of Christ is nothing but the doctrine of lawless grace?

That the word Law in the Old Testament, frequently means the sweetest gospel-promises, prove, First, from these sayings of David,The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver, Psalm cxix. 72.-He hath remembered his [gospel] covenant for ever,-which covenant he hath made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob, for a law," Psa. cv. 8, &c. Here the gospel-covenant made with the three chosen Patriarchs is called a Law. Hence it is, that when Isaiah speaks of the brightest display of gos pel grace at the time that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, he says, "Out of Sion shall go forth the law," Isa. ii. 2, 3.-Agreeably t this view of things we read in Nehemiah, "All the people gathered themselves together as one man, and spake to Ezra to bring the Law of Moses:-That the ears of all the peo ple were attentive to the book of the Law:

viii. 3, 8, 10, 7. Now, if the Law, which was read and explained to them, contained only the impracticable sanctions of a merci less thundering Justice; were not all the people out of their senses, when they went their way with great gladness after hearing the Law expounded.

The New Testament confirms this account of the doctrines of Grace and Justice, and of the words Law and Gospel. When our Lord (who undoubtedly knew the exact meaning of the word Gospel, sent his disciples to preach the gospel to every creature, he charged them to declare, that "He who believeth not shall be damned," as well as that "He who believeth shall be saved," Mark xvi, 16. Whence it evidently appears, that the Lord meant by the Gospel, the severe doctrines of Justice, as well as the comfortable doctrines of Grace.

St. Paul gives us exactly the same idea of the gospel. In the epistle to the Romans, where he contends most for the gratuitous election of distinguishing love, he expostulates with those who " despise the riches of God's goodness, and treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man accord ing to his deeds;-eternal life to them, who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory; but indignation and wrath to them, that obey not the gospel." If you ask St. Paul, when God will thus display his merciful goodness, and tremendous justice, he directly answers; "When God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel;" that is, according to the promises and threatenings;-the doctrines of Grace and the doctrines of Justice, which compose the gospel I preach, Rom. ii. 4—16.

Hence it is, the apostle calls the Mosaic Dispensation, sometimes, the law, and some times, the gospel, while he stiles the Christian dispensation, sometimes, the law of Christ, and sometimes, the gospel of Christ.

That St. Paul indifferently calls the Mosaic dispensation law and gospel, is evident from the following. texts: "Every man that is circumcised is a debtor to the whole law," Gal. v. 3. Here the word law undoubtedly means the Mosaic dispensation. Again, "To us was the gospel preached as well as to them," [the Israelites who perished in the wilderness for not believing Moses] Heb. iv. 2. Whence it follows, that to them, [the Israelites who perished] the gospel [i. e. the doctrine of grace and justice] was preached, as well as unto us, Christians, who are saved by obedient faith. Once more: That which Moses preached to them, was the doctrine of grace and of justice, is evident from this consideration; had the Mosaic gospel been a doctrine of mere justice, it could not have been a gospel like our gracious gospel and

had it been a mere doctrine of grace, the apostle could never have excited us not to neglect our Christian gospel, and great salvation, by pointing out to us the fearful destruction of the Israelites, who neglecting their Jewish gospel and salvation; lest any [Christian] fall after the same example of unbelief, Heb. iv. 11.

With respect to the Christian dispensation, the Apostle calls it sometimes the law; "The doers of the law [i. e. of the preceptive part of the gospel] shall be justified,-when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel, Rom. ii. 13, 16, compared with Matt. xii. 36, 37.-Sometimes he calls it the law of Christ. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," Gal. vi. 2. Sometimes the laws of God: I will write my laws [i. e. my evangelical precepts and promises] in their hearts, Heb. viii. 10. 16. Sometimes the law of the Spirit, Rom. viii 2. and sometimes, The gospel of Christ, Rom. i, 16. Hence it is, that, to be a christian believer, in St. Paul's language, is to be under the law of Christ, 1 Cor. ix. 21.~ As for St James, he never calls the Christian dispensation gospel; but he simply calls it, either the law, Jam. iv. 11, 12.-ii. 10: The law of liberty, Jam. ii. 12 :-Or, The perfect law of liberty, Jam i. 25. St. John uses the same language in his epistles, where he never mentions the word gospel, and where speaking of the sins of christian believers, he says, that sin is the transgression of the law: whence it follows, that the sin of Christians, is the transgression of the law of Christ, or of the holy doctrines of justice preached by Jesus Christ. To deny it would be asserting we cannot sin: For St. Paul informs us, that the Mosaic law is done away, 2 Cor. iii. 11. Now, if no christian is under the law of Moses, and if Christ never grafted the moral part of the Mosaic law into the christian dispensation; or, in other terms, if Christ's gospel is a lawless institution, it necessarily follows that no christian can sin: For Sin is not imputed or charged [that is, There is no sing where there is no law, Rom. v. 13. Hence it is, that antinomian doctrines of grace, represent fallen, adulterous, bloody believers, as spotless, or sinless before God, in all their sins. Such is the necessary consequence of a lawless gospel armed with pointless rules of life! Such the dreadful tendency of doctrines of grace torn away from the doctrine of justice!

SECTION II.

Remarks on the two Gospel-axioms, or capital truths upon which the doctrines of Grace and Justice are founded. Augustine himself once granted both those truths. Rigid Arminians indirectly deny the one, and rigid Calvinists the other. How the partial de

fenders of the doctrines of Justice und Gruce try to save appearances, with respect to the part of the truth, which they indirectly oppose.

So noble and solid a super-structure as the Gospel, [i. e. the scripture doctrines of grace and justice] undoubtedly stands upon a noble and sure foundation. Accordingly we find, that the primitive gospel rests on two principles, the one theological and the other moral. These two principles, or if you please, these two pillars of gospel truth, may for distinctions's sake, be called Gospelaxioms at least I beg leave to call them £0. Nor will the candid reader deny my request, if he considers the following definitions.

1. An Axiom is a self-evident truth, which at once recommends itself to the understanding, or to the conscience of every unprejudiced man. Thus, two and two make four, is an axiom in every counting-house. And that "The absolute necessity of all human actions is incompatible with a moral Law and a day of Judgment," is an axiom in every unprejudiced mind.

2. The two gospel-axioms are the two principles, or capital self-evident truths, on which the primitive gospel, (that is, the scripture-doctrine of grace and justice) is founded.

3. The first gospel-axiom bears up the holy doctrines of grace. and (when it is cordially received) is equally destructive of proud pharisaism and the unholy doctrines of lawless grace. This axiom is the following selfevident truth, which recommends itself to the mind and conscience of every candid bible-christian. "Our first talent or degree of salvation, is merely of God's free-grace in Christ, without any work or endeavour of our own and our eternal salvation is origin ally, capitally, and finally,† of God's free

* A Solifidian would say entirely, and by this means he would leave no room for the second gospel-axiom, for the rewardableness of the works of faith, and for the doctrines of remunerative justice. But by saying capitally, we avoid his three-fold mistake, we secure the honour of holy Free grace, and shut the door against its counterfeit.

By adding finally, we shew that the top-stone, as well as the foundation-stone of our eternal salvation is to be brought with shouting Grace! Grace unto it; because, if God had honoured his obedient saints with a sight of his heavenly glory for half an hour, and then suffered them to fall gently asleep in the bosom of oblivion, or to slide into a state of personal non-existence, he would have demonstrated his remunerative justice, and amply rewarded their best services. Hence it appears, that God's giving eternal rewards of glory for a few temporary services, done by his own grace, is such an instance of free-grace, as nothing but eternal shouts of Grace! Grace! can sufficiently ac'knowledge. We desire our mistaken brethren to consider this remark; otherwise they will wrong the truth and us by continuing to say, that our doctrines of grace, allow indeed Free-grace to lay the foundation, but that they reserve to the works of ourrectified Freewill, the honour of bringing the top-stere of our eter.

grace in Christ; through our not neglecting that first talent or degree of salvation.”—I say, through our not neglecting, &c. to secure the connexion of the two gospel-axioms, and remunerative justice. to leave scripture-room for the doctrines of

4. The second gospel-axiom bears up the doctrines of justice, and extirpates the doctrine of Free-wrath. It is the following proposition, which, I believe, no candid Bible-christian will deny. "Our eternat damnation is originally and principally of obstinate and final neglect of the first talent, our own personal Free-will, through an or degree of salvation."

These two gospel-axioms may be thus expressed: 1. Our salvation is of God: or, There is free-grace in God, which through Christ, freely places all men in a state of temporary, redemption, justification, or salvation, according to the various gospeldispensations, and crown those who are faithful unto death with an eternal redemption, justification, or salvation.-2. Our damnation is of ourselves: or, There is a free will in man, by which he may, through the grace freely imparted to him in the day of temporary salvation, work out his own eternal salvation : or he may, (through the natural power which angels had to sin in heaven, and our first parents in paradise) choose to sin away the day of temporary salvation. And by thus working out his damnation he may provoke Just-wrath (which is the same as despised Free-grace) to punish him with

eternal destruction.

These two truths, or axioms, might be made still-plainer thus: 1. Our gracious and just God, in a day of salvation begun, sets life or death before us :-2. As freewilling, assisted creatures, we may, during that day, choose which we please: We may stretch out our hand to the water or to the fire. Or thus: 1. There is holy, righteous, and partial free-grace in God: 2. There is free-will in redeemed, assisted man, whereby he is capable of obeying or disobeying God's

nal salvation with saying, Works! Works! unto it; a Pharisaic doctrine this, which we abhor; loudly as serting that, although our free, unnecessitated obedience of faith intervenes, yet God in Christ is the Omega, as well as the Alpha,-the end, as well as the beginning of our eternal salvation.

I add the word originally to cut off the self-excusing opinion of those men, who charge their eternal damnation upon an absolute decree of reprobation, or upon Adam's first transgression.-As for the word principally, it secures the part in the damnation of the wicked, which the Scriptures ascribe to the righte ons God; it being certain, K That God judicially hardens his slothful and unprofitable servants, by taking from them, at the end of their day of grace, the talent of softening grace, which they have obstinately buried: And, 2. That he judicially reprobates, or damns them, by pronouncing this awful sentence, Depart ye cursed, &c. A flame of vindictive justice belongs to the gospel of Christ, Heb. xi. 29. but not a single spark of Free wrath.