went before the caufe: and now (if your definition has any meaning at all), you would infinuate again, that God the Father does not elect and chufe men, until they become good: and then, I fuppofe, if they lofe this goodnefs (for, upon Arminian principles, it is a very flippery thing), they are prefently cahiered and un-chofe: but, if their free-will should once more yield itfelf fo pliable, as to grow good again, they are re-elected anew: and, perhaps, after they have been, in the courfe of a few years, elected and un-elected, redeemed and un-redeemed, fanctified and un-fanctified, born again and un-born, fome hundreds of times: thefe "elect and chofen of God, thefe good Chriftians," may (for it is all a chance) perift and go to hell at laft. A very fuitable reprefentation, this, of the God who changeth not, and of the everlasting covenant which is ordered in all things and fure! "The elect and chofen of God are, all good Chriftians:" invert the propofition, and you will advance a certain truth: "all good Chriftians," thofe that are renewed, and fanctified in the fpirit of their minds by divine grace, "are the elect and chofen of God;" known and difcovered to be his chofen, by the grace which he hath given them. I am fure, St. Paul reprefents, fanctification, not as a cause or condition of election, but as a fruit, effect, and one fubordinate end of it: according as he hath chofen us in him [in Chrift] before the foundation of the world, [not because we were, or he forefaw we would be, "good Chriftians," but that] we fhould be holy and without blame before him in love: having predeftinated us unto the adoption of children by Jefus Chrift to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, Eph. i. 4, 5. I with you would read what bifhop Fell obferves. on this paffage: the teftimony of that learned and worthy bishop of Oxford might be a means of making you fee the abfurdity, as well as impiety, of turning the golpel plan upfide-down, by bottoming God's God's decrees on any qualification (whether actual or forefeen) in the creature. You go on, (ibid.) "Chrift's fheep are they who hear his voice, and follow him, and abound in good works." We all grant that his sheep, or his elect, "hear his voice" fooner or later, in effectual calling; that they are made to "follow him" in the regeneration, "and abound in good works," from the genuine principles of faith and love. But then we affert, with the Scripture, and conformably to the doctrine of our Church, that this fanctification of them is not the cause of their being his sheep and his chosen, but proofs, marks, and evidences of their having been fo from everlafting. Our Lord himself, John x. ftyles the elect his fheep, previously to their hearing his voice: My fheep hear my voice, &c. they do not hear it, in order to their becoming his fheep, but hear it as fuch, and because they were fuch. So, verse 16, the elect, even while unregenerate, and who had not yet heard his voice, are termed his fheep; And other sheep I have, which are not of this [of the Jewish] fold; them alfo I muft bring, and they fhall hear my voice: according to what he fays, elfewhere, All that the Father giveth me, fhall come He tells the reprobate Jews, chap. x. Ye believe not, because ye are not of my fheep, i. e. in the number of my elect. But if the word theep does not fignify elect perfons, but good Chriftians; the fenfe of our Lord's declaration would be this, "Ye are not believers and good Chriftians, because ye are not believers and good Chriftians!" unto me. As you will not let the word elect have fair play for itfelf; the word Church muft, it feems, come in for a fhare of the fame fate, p. 112. "The Church, in Scripture, fignifies the whole body of Chriftians, of which Chrift is the head." Do you mean the vifible, or the invifible Church? If the vifible, it does moft certainly confift of the whole body of profeffing Chriftians, of whom Chrift is the acknowledged ledged head. But, if you mean the invifible Church (that Church, which Chrift loved, and for which he gave himself unto death, Eph. v. 25.) your definition is much too vague and lax: this Church being Gunn, co-elect with Chrift, and ordained to grace and glory through him; the Church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, Heb. xii. and whofe names are, from before the foundation of the world, in the Lamb's Book of Life, Luke x. 20. Phil. iv. 3. Rev. xvii. 8. The constituent members of this invifible Church, when brought to the knowledge of Chrift by effectual calling, and added to the vifible fold, are, in Scripture, the true xxλnia, or the company of men called out of the world, and gathered in from among mankind: fo that, during their abode on earth, they are a kingdom within a kingdom, as being not only fubjects of the kingdom of Providence (which they were before, in common with the reft), but likewife exalted to be fubjects of the kingdom of grace, which all mankind are not. I could with, fir, that you had obferved fome regular plan, in your handling of the points in debate. Instead of this, the method, you obferve, is as rambling and embarraffed, as the fyftem, you have embraced. Your performance had been lefs intricate and confused, if you had reduced it to fome order, and delivered all you had to fay on predeftination, free-will, and final perfeverance, under each of thofe heads respectively, without running them one into another. For want of this, I am forced to follow you through your various windings, and meafure back the ground already trod, by perpetually reverting to the fame fubjects. After giving us your definition of the word Church, you recur to the doctrine of univerfal redemption: which you aver to be taught by our homilies. That the Church, when treating of Chrift's facrifice and death, does not always, in fo many words, exprefsly limit redemption to the elect only; is no argument of her holding the abfurd abfurd doctrines of a random falvation, and of redemption without a plan. It is her own ftated rule, and a very just one, that "The promises of God are to be received in fuch wife, as they be generally fet forth in holy Scripture." This rule fhe has generally followed, and in it we follow her too; and affert, pleno ore, that "God fo loved the world," i. e. Gentiles as well as Jews, "that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that whofoever believeth in him, fhould not perish, but have everlafting life." The queftion, then, between the Arminians and us, is, not, whether all true believers fhall be faved; for we hold that as a certain truth: but, whether faving faith (which always works by love) is of man's acquifition, or of God's operation. : Now, again, for perfeverance, p. 118. "The 16th article teaches, that, after we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into fin and that deadly fin is here meant, appears from the beginning of the article. It follows, that, by the grace of God, we may rife again: which plainly implies, that we alfo may not rife again.' Pray, fir, let the article fpeak for itself. The title of it runs thus, "Of fin after baptifm:" and the article itself is as follows; "Not every deadly fin, wilfully committed after baptifm, is fin against the Holy Ghoft, and unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied to fuch as fall into fin after baptifm. After we have received the Holy Ghoft" [i.e. after we have been baptized, as the words, immediately preceding, explain it]."we may depart from grace given," &c. The conclufions, to be inferred from this article, are, 1. That it treats of fins committed, not after fpiritual and internal regeneration, but fimply, after baptifm. 2. That, it is probable, fome common, reftraining influences of the fpirit may ufually be vouchfafed to the recipients of this ordinance: but ftill, thefe influences do not, for any thing the article fays, amount to real real regeneration confequently, it has nothing to do with the doctrine of final perfeverance, which relates to the truly regenerate, and to them only. 3. The departure from grace given, of which the article makes mention, is only fimply ftiled a departure, without declaring that departure to be either total or final: confequently, it does not at all affect the prefent argument. 4. The whole apparently relates, not to matters of fpiritual grace, but to ecclefiaftical cenfures and the exercife of Church difcipline. If, for example, a member of the Church be under excommunication for fome atrocious crime committed, or for fome public fcandal given, after baptifm; the Church, upon fuch a perfon's open repentance, is to accept of his fubmiffion, and recall her cenfures: as appears, not only from the main drift of the article, but, in particular, from those words of it, "The grant of repentance is not to be denied to fuch, as fall into fin after baptifm.' Hence, this article, 5. Exprefsly condemns the feverity of the old Novatians; who held, that fuch baptized perfons, as had fallen away in perfecuting times, were for ever to be excluded from the communion of the Church. 6. It follows, from the article, that they are no lefs to be condemned, who would fet up for finlefs perfection; and that, 7. Baptized perfons and profeffing Chriftians are liable to fall into fin, and may, by grace, recover and rise again. All which is very true, and doubted of by no Calvinift within the fphere of my acquaintance. -Bishop Burnet would gladly enough have caught at this article, in proof of the faints apoftacy, had the article itself looked at all that way. But he faw it did not, and therefore explains it in a manner, very different from the gloffes and perverfions, with which Dr. Nowell would darken it. Surely, the cause must be very weak, which, in fo able an hand as yours, is fo feebly and fo unfairly fupported! Why fhould you labour, fo ardently, to make the |