The number of the predeftinated is fore-determined, and certain: fo that it can neither be increafed, nor diminished. There have alfo been ftill larger affemblies of divines: compofed of all the bishops, deans, and delegates of the clergy, in England. Witnefs the affembly, who drew up the 39 articles, to which Mr. Wefley has, indeed, over and over again, fat his hand: but with the fame fimplicity and godly fincerity (2 Cor. i. 12.), which feem to have actuated Dr. Reid, Dr. Ofwald, and Dr. Beattie, when they fubfcribed the confeffion and catechifm of the Weftminfter affembly. There's fuch a thing, as holy tricking. Tefts are but pie-cruft, made for breaking. Are fweetmeats, which that cruft contains. Moreover, what shall we fay, concerning that most reverend, right reverend, affembly; who put that woeful collect into the liturgy, beginning with, O God, whofe never-failing providence ordereth all things, both in heaven and earth? Can any thing breathe, more ftrongly, the whole of what we mean by neceffity?-A providence-a never-failing providence-That ordereth not only fome, but all things-Yea, all things both in heaven and earth! In that one paffage (and the Church has very many others, quite like unto it), "See neceffity drawn at full length, and painted in the moft lively colours. 6. It is curious, to behold Arminians themselves forced, by ftrefs of argument, to take refuge in the harbour of that neceffity which, at other times, they fo vehemently feek to destroy. "It is neceffary, fay they, that man's will fhould be free: for, without freedom, the will were no will at all." I pity the diftressful dilemma, to which they are driven. Should they fay, it is not neceffary for man's will to be free; they give up their whole caufe at once. If they fay (and fay it they do), that it is neceffary, yea abfolutely neceffary, for the will to be free; and that, in its very nature, it cannot but be free;-then, fay I, upon that principle, thefe good people are free, with a liberty of neceffity, and theer neceffity itself is the root and fap of all their boafted free-agency. In other words, free-agency, themfelves being judges, is only a ramification of neceffity! 7. Though I have mentioned the following anecdote, in a preceding publication; yet, by way of recompenfing Mr. Wefley, for the amufement he has afforded me, in publishing the converfation of the two neceffitarian gentlemen, whereof I have juft given the reader an account; I alfo, in my turn, shall refer him to a very remarkable conversation, which paffed between a free-will gentleman and myfelf, June 21, 1774, in the neighbourhood of London, and in the prefence of my friend, the Rev. Mr, Ryland. "God does all he poffibly can," faid the Arminian philofopher, "to hinder moral and natural evil. But he cannot prevail. Men will not permit God to have his with."-Then the Deity, anfwered I, muft certainly be a very unhappy being. "Not unhappy in the leaft."-What! meet with a conftant feries of croffes; thwarted in his daily endeavours; difappointed of his wifhes; difconcerted in his plan of operations; defeated of his intentions; embarraffed in his views; and actually overpowered, every moment of every day, by numberlefs of the creatures he has made; and yet be happy under all this inceffant feries of perplexing and mortifying circumstances?" Yes: for he knows, that, in confequence of the free-will, with which he has en dued his rational creatures, he himself muft be difappointed of his wifhes, and defeated of his ends; and that there is no help for it, unless he had made us mere machines. He therefore fubmits to neceffity and does not make himself uneafy about it *" Can any thing be more fhockingly execrable, than fuch a degrading and blafphemous idea of the ever bleffed God? And confequently, is not the doctrine of human felf-determinability the moft daring, the moft inconfiftent, the moft falfe, the moft cor.temptible, and the most atheistical tenet, that ever fpawned by pride and ignorance in conjunction? A doctrine, which, in running away from the true neceffity, coins an impoffible neceflity of its own inventing; and, while it reprefents men. as gods, finks God far below the level of the meaneft man! Is not the adorable Creator of the world, the Governor of it too? Or has he only built a ftage, for fortune to dance upon?. Does Almighty Providence do no more than hold the diftaff, while contingency (i. e. while nothing) fpins the threads, and wreathes them into a line, for the First Caufe (very falfely fo called, if this be the cafe!) to wind upon his reel, and turn to the best account he can? Arminians may affirm it. But God forbid, that I fhould ever believe it. For my own part, I folemnly profefs, before God, angels, and men, that I am not confcious of my being endued with that felf-determining power, which Arminianifm afcribes to me as an individual of the human fpecies. Nay, I am clearly certain, that I have it not. I am alfo equally certain, that I do not *See a note, fubjoined to p. 5. of a Sermon lately published by me, entitled, Free will and Merit brought to the Teft; or, Men not their own Saviours: where fome of the horrible confequences, and of the gigantic inconfiftencies, infeparable from this gentleman's theory, are briefly pointed out. wish to have it and that, was it poffible for my Creator to make me an offer of transferring the determination of any one event, from his own will to mine; it would be both my duty and my wisdom, to entreat, that the fceptre might still remain with himfelf, and that I might have nothing to do in the direction of a fingle incident, or of fo much as a fingle circumftance. Mr. Wefley laments, that neceffity is "The scheme, which is now adopted by not a few of the moft fenfible men in the nation." I agree with him, as to the fact. But I cannot deplore it as a calamity. The progrefs, which that doctrine has, of late years, made, and is ftill making, in this kingdom, I confider as a moft happy and promifing fymptom, that the Divine Goodness has yet abundant mercies in referve, for a Church, the majority of whofe reputed members have long apoftatized from her effential principles; and for a country, whofe * * Take a specimen of the vitiated state, in which the free-will gangrene has reduced the moral take of this Chriftian and reformed country, in the following admired lines, which are part of a very applauded entertainment, lately introduced on the English stage: "With fport, love, and wine, fickle fortune defy; Since life is no more than a paffage, at beft; Let us firew the way over with flow'rs." Was a religious and fenfible foreigner, whether a Proteftant, or Popith; Jew, Mahometan, or Heathen; to be informed, that fuch equally deteftable and despicable fentiments, as thofe, are heard with rapture at the British theatres, and chorufed with delight in numberlefs private companies in every part of the kingdom: would he not be inclined to fet us down, in general, for a nation of Epicurean Atheists, fit only to wallow in the Circean fty; quite loft to all religion, philofophy, virtue, and decency; and no otherwife entitled to the name of man, than by perpendicularity of fhape conpected with the art of speaking? "If prone in thought, our ftature is our shame: And man should blush, his forehead meets the skies." morals |