of all judicious and good men, who fooner or later grant, that there are fuch things as God's grace, and man's unneceffitated choice; and confequently fuch things as Free-grace and Free-will in the moral world: -upon the repeated teftimonies of the most pious christians of all denominations, who agree, that we ought to give God the glory of our falvation, and to keep to ourselves the blame of our damnation: - and upon almoft-numberlefs declarations of the fcrip tures, I reft these two propofitions, which, if I miftake not, deserve the name of GOSPEL-AXIOMS (1) Our falvation is ORIGINALLY of God's FREE-GRACE : —(2) Our damnation is ORIGINALLY of our own FREE

WILL.

Honeftus, who believes in general that the bible is true, cannot decently oppofe the first axiom: for, according to the fcriptures, God's FREE-GRACE gave Christ freely for us, and to us :-FOR us, that he might be a propitiation for the fins of the whole world: -And To us, that, by the light which enlightens every man that comes into the world, the ftrong propenfity to eyil, which he had contracted by the fall of Adam, might be counterbalanced; and that, by the faving grace of God, which has appeared to all men, we might, while the day of falvation lafts, be bleffed with a gentle bias to good, to counteract our native bias to evil; and be excited by internal helps, external calls, and gracious opportunities, to refift our evil inclinations, to follow the bias of divine grace, and to work out our own falvation with fear and trembling, in due subordination to the Saviour and his grace.

Nor can Zelotes, who profeffes a peculiar regard for God's glory, reject the fecond gospel-axiom with any decency: For, if our own free-will makes us freely, and unneceffarily, neglect fo great falvation as Christ initially imparts to us, and offers eternally to bestow upon us, on the gracious terms of the gofpel; is it not ridiculous to exculpate us, by charging either God, or Adam, or both together, with our damnation? And do we not caft the most horrible reflection upon the Judge of the earth, and the Father of mercies, if we

fuppofe

fuppofe, that he has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness, and fentence to the gnawings of a worm that dieth not, and to the preyings of a fire that is not quenched, numberlefs myriads of his poor creatures, merely for wanting a faith, which he determined they should never have: or for doing what they could no more help to do, than a pound can help weighing fixteen ounces.

Impartially read any one book in the bible, and you will find that it establishes the truth of the two following propofitions :

1. God hath freely done great things for man; and the ftill greater things which he freely does for believers, and the mercy with which he daily crowns them, juftly entitle him to all the honour of their falvation; fo far as that honour is worthy of the PRIMITIVE Parent of good, and FIRST CAUSE of all our bleffings.

2. He wifely looks for fome return from man; and the little things, which obftinate unbelievers refuse to do, and which God's preventing grace gives them ability to perform, justly entitle them to all the fhame of their damnation. Therefore, altho their TEMPORAL misery is originally from Adam; yet their ETERNAL ruin is originally from themselves.

The firft of thofe propofitions extols God's MERCY, and the fecond clears his JUSTICE: while both together difplay his TRUTH and HOLINESS. According to the doctrine of free-grace, Chrift is a compaffionate Saviour according to that of free-will, he is a righ teous fudge. By the firft, his rewards are gracious; by the Second, his punishments are juft.-By the first, the mouths of the bleffed in heaven are opened to fing deferved hallelujahs to God and the Lainb: And by the fecond, the mouths of the damned in hell are kept from uttering deserved + blafphemies against

God

+I do not mean that any blafphemy against God is deserved; but that, according to all our ideas of juftice, this woULD BE the cafe, if the doctrine of free-will were falfe. For, fuppofing men and

angels

God and his Chrift.-According to the firft, God remains the genuine Parent of good; and according to the fecond, devils and apoftate men, are ftill the genuine authors of evil.-If you explode the firft of those propofitions, you admit pharifaic dotages, and selfexalting pride; if you reject the fecond, you fet up antinomian delufions, and voluntary humility: But if you receive them both, you avoid the contrary miftakes of Honeftus and Zelotes, and confiftently hold the fcriptural doctrines of faith and works-free-grace and free-will- divine mercy and divine justice a finner's impotence and a faint's faithfulness.

Read the fcriptures in the light, which beams forth from those two capital truths; and that precious book will, in fome places, appear to you almost new. You will at least fee a beautiful agreement between a variety of texts, that are irreconcilable upon the narrow, partial fchemes of the pharifees, and of the antinomians. Permit me to give you a fpecimen of it, by prefenting you with my Scales: that is, by placing in one point of view a number of oppofite truths, which make one beautiful whole, according to the doctrine of the two gofpel-axioms. And may the Father of lights

C

angels are not endued with free-agency, is it not evident, that they are mere inftruments in the hand of a fuperior, irrefiftible Agent, who works wickedness in and by them, agreeably to this unguarded propofition of Elisha Coles, "ALL THINGS were prefent with God from eternity; and his decree the CAUSE of their AFTER-EXISTENCE?" And does not Reason cry aloud, that fuch an almighty Agent, is more culpable than his over-powered, or paffive tools? Can Zelotes himself fay, that an highwayman does not deferve hanging more than the piftol which he fires, and the horse which he rides when he commits murder? What an immenfe field does the doctrine of bound-will open in hell for the moft execrable blafphemies? The Lord forgive its fupporters: for they know not what they do! The gofpel leaves even heathen unbelievers without excufe, Rom. i. 20; but the modern "doctrines of grace" furnish all forts of infidels with the beft excufes in the world. "God's predeftination caufed Adam's fin and their own; and God's decree kept Chrift from dying for, and his spirit from fincerely friving with them." As thefe neceffary confequences of Calvinifin encourage "Mr. Fulfome" to fin here; fo [if His doctrines of grace were true] they would comfort him in hell hereafter.

ights fo blefs the primary truths to Honeftus, that he ay receive the doctrine of free grace; and the feconlary ones to Zelotes, that he may efpoufe the doctrine of free-will! So fhall thofe inveterate contenders be happily reconciled to moderation, to the whole gofpel, and to one another.

Containing: (1) The golden beam of the Scripture-Scales: (2) The chains by which they are fufpended: And (3) A rational account of the origin of evil.

SCIPTURAL PRINCIPLES.

Making the BEAM of the Scriptural Scales.