ed both into a fheep and a shepherd; David, an harmless fheep, could in as fhort a time commence a goat with Bathfheba, and prove a wolf in sheep's clothing to her husband.

Pardon me, honoured Sir, if to make my mistaken brethren afham'd of their argument, I dedicate to them the following foliloquv, wherein I reafon upon their own plan. Thofe very Jews whom the baptift and our Lord call'd a brood of vipers, and ferpents, were foon after compared to chicken, which "Chrift wanted to gather as a hen does her brood. What a wonderful change was here! The vipers became chickens! Now as it was never heard that chickens became vipers, I conclude that thofe Jews, even 'when they came about our Lord like fat bulls of Bafan, like ramping and roaring lions, were true chickens ftill. And indeed why fhould not they have been as true chickens, as David was a true sheep when he murdered Uriah? I abhor the doctrine 'which maintains that a man may be a chick or a fheep to-day,and a viper or a goat to-morrow.'

'

<

But I am a little embarrass'd. If none go to hell but goats, and none to heaven but fheep, where fhall the chickens go? Where the wolves in fheep's cloathing? And in what limbus of heaven or hell 'fhall we put that fox Herod, the dogs who return to their vomit, and the fwine, before whom we muft not caft our pearls? Are they all species of goats, or fome particular kind of fheep?

My difficultes increase. The church is call'd a dove, and Ephraim a filly dove? Shall the filly dove be admitted among the fheep? Her cafe feems ra'ther doubtful. The hair of the fpoufe in the canticles is likewife faid to be like a flock of goats, and Christ's fhepherds are reprefented as feeding kids, or • young goats befides their tents. I wonder if those young goats became young fheep, or if they were all ' doom'd to continue reprobates! But what puzzles 6 me moft, is that the Babylonians are in the fame

verfe compar'd to lambs, rams, and goats: Were they mongrel elect, or mongrel reprobates, or fome of Elisha Cole's fpiritual monfters, in whom the fpirit had begotten a lump of dead flesh ?'

I make this ridiculous foliloquy to fhew the abfurdity and danger of refting weighty doctrines upon fo fandy a foundation as the particular fenfe which fome good men give to a few scriptural cxpreffions ftretch'd and abus'd on the rack of my countryman Calvin; especially fuch expreffions as thefe, a child of God, a fheep, a goat, and above all, the dead in fin.

Upon this laft expreflion you feem, honoured Sir, chiefly to place the merit of your cause with refpect to" working for life"; witnefs the following words: "That we are to work for life is an affertion most exceedingly felf-contradictory, if it be a truth that man is dead in trefpaffes and fins." Had you given yourself the trouble of reading with any degree of attention the 42d page of the vindication, you would have feen your difficulty propos'd and folv'd: Witnefs the following words which conclude the folution: "In this fcriptural view of free grace, what room is there for the ridiculous cavil, that Mr. W. wants the dead to work for life." Had I been in your place I confefs, honoured Sir, I could not have produc'd that cavil again, without attempting at least to wipe off the ridicule put upon it. I fhould think truth has better wepaons to defend herfelf than a vail. I grant that the reverend Divine whofe fecond you are, has publickly caft a vail over all my arguments, under the name of miftakes: but could you poffibly think that his vail was thick enough to cover them from the eyes of unprejudic'd readers, and palliate your anfwering, or feeming to answer me without taking notice of my arguments? But if you caft a vail over them, I fhall now endeavour to do your's justice and clear the matter a little farther.

I. Availing yourself of St. Paul's words to the Ephefians and Coloffians, You hath he quicken'd, who

D 3

were dead in trefpaffes and fins, and you being dead in your fins hath he quicken'd together with him; you dwell upon the abfurdity of "expecting living actions from a dead corpfe," or living works from a dead foul.

(1) I wonder at the partiality of fome perfons. If we affert that frong believers are DEAD to fin, they tell us very properly that fuch are not fo dead but they may commit fin if they please, or if they are off their watch: But if we fay that many who are DEAD in fin, are not fo dead but in the strength imparted together with the light that enlightens every man, they may leave off fome of their fins if they pleafe, we are exclaim'd against as ufing metaphyfical diftinctions, and dead muft abfolutely mean impotent as a corpfe.

(2.) The word dead &c. is frequently ufed in the fcriptures to denote a particular degree of helpleffness and inactivity very fhort of the total helplefinefs of a corple. We read of the DEADNESS of Sarah's womb; and of Abraham's body being DEAD, and he must be a ftrong Calvinift indeed, who, from fuch expreffions, peremptorily afferts, that Sarah's DEAD womb was as unfit for conception, and Abraham's DEAD body for generation, as if they both had been "DEAD Corpfes." Chrift writes to the church of Sardis, I know thy works; thou haft a name to live, and art DEAD: but it is evident that dead as they were, fomething rezined alive in them, tho', like the fmoaking flax, it was ready to die: Witness the words that follow, be watchful, and firengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. Now Sir, if the dead Sardians could "work for life," by ftrengthening the things belonging to the Christian which remained in them; is it modeft to decide e cathedrâ, that the dead Ephefians and Coloffians could not as well work for life by firengihning the things that remained and were ready to die under THEIR OWN difpenfation? Is it not evident that a beam of the light of the world still fhone in their hearts, or that the Spirit ftill ftrove with them? If they had abfolutely quench'd him, would he have helped thein to believe? And if they had not, was not there fomething

fomething of the light which enlightens every man remaining in them; with which they both could, and did work for life, as well as the dead Sardians?

(3.) The abfurdity of always measuring the meaning of the word dead by the idea of a dead corpfe, appears from feveral other fcriptures. St. Paul fpeaking of one who grows wanton againft Chrift, fays, fhethat liveth in pleafure is DEAD while fhe liveth. Now if this means that she is entirely devoid of every degree of fpiritual life, what beccmes of Calvinifm? Suppofe all that have in pleasure are as dead to God as corpfes; what became of the everlasting life of Lot, when he liv'd in pleafure with his daughters? Of David with Batfheba, and Solomon with his idola trous wives? When the fame apostle obferves to the Romans that their body was DEAD becaufe of fins did he really mean they were already dead corpfes? And when he adds, fin revived and I DIED, did Calvinian death really pass upon him? Dead as he was, could not he complain like the dry bones, and afk, who fhall deliver me from this body of death? Again, when our Lord fays to Martha, he that BELIEVETH in me, tho' he were DEAD yet fhall he LIVE, does he not intimate that there is a work confiftent with the de

gree of death of which he fpeaks? A believing out of death into life? A doing the work of God for life, yea for eternal life?

(4.) From thefe and the like fcriptures it is evident that there are different degrees of fpiritual death, which you perpetually confound. (1) Total death, or a full departure of the Holy Spirit. This pafs'd upon Adam, and all mankind in him, when he loft God's moral image, fell into felfifh nature, and was buried in fin, guilt, fhame, and horror. (2.) Death freely vifited with a feed of life in our fallen reprefentative, and of courfe in all his pofterity, during the day of their vifitation. (3.) Death oppreffing this living feed, and holding it in unrighteoufnefs, which was the death of the Ephefians and Coloffians. (4.)

Death

Death prevailing again over the living feed, after it had been powerfully quickened, and burying it in sin and wickednefs. This was the death of David during his apoftacy, and is still that of all who once believed, but now live in Laodicean ease or Sardian pleafure. And (5.) the death of confirmed apoftates, who, by abfolutely quenching the fpirit of life in Chrift Jefus the 2d Adam, are fallen into the miferable ftate of nature and total helpleffness in which the first Adam was, when God preached to him the gospel of his quickening grace. These are faid by St. James to be twice dead; dead by Adam's total apoftacy from God, and dead by their own perfonal and final apoftacy from the light of the world.

II. The foundation of the Crifpian Babel is literally laid in confufion. When you have confounded all the degrees of fpiritual death, we may naturally expect to fee you confound all the degrees of fpiritual life, which our Lord meant when he said, I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. "All that are quickened, do you fay, are pardoned and juftified." As if a man could not be quickened to fee his fins and reform, before he is quickened fo to believe in Christ as to receive the pardon and juftification mentioned Col. ii. ! 13, and

66

Rom. v. 1.

If you read the fcriptures without prejudice, you will fee that there are feveral degrees of fpiritual life or quickening power. (1.) The living light which fhines in the darkness of every man, during the day of his vifitation. (2.) The life of the returning finner, whether he has always lived in open fin as the publican, or once walked in the ways of God as David. (3.) The life of the heathen, who like Cornelius fears God and works righteoufnefs according to his light, and is accepted in his difpenfation. (4.) The life of the pious Jew, who like Samuel fears God from his youth. This degree of life is far fupcrior to the preceding, being cherished by the traditions of the patri

archs