11. You next give what you stile ¹_The_ Christian scheme of justification, and afterwards point out the consequences, which you apprehend to have attended the preaching justification by faith: the third point into which I was to inquire.
¹ Page 50.
You open the cause thus: ¹_The denying the necessity of good works, as the condition of justification, directly draws after it, or rather includes in it, all manner of impiety and vice――――It has often perplexed and disturbed the minds of men, and in the last century occasioned great confusions in this nation――――These are points which are ever liable to misconstructions, and have ever yet been more or less attended with them. And it appears from what you have lately published, that since you have preached the doctrine, it has had its old consequences, or rather worse ones: it has been more misunderstood, more perverted and abused than ever._
¹ Pages 1, 2.
_The denying the necessity of good works, as the condition of justification, draws after it, or rather includes in it, all manner of impiety and vice._ Here stands the proposition: but where is the proof? Till that appears, I simply say, _It does not_.
_It has often perplexed and disturbed the minds of men._ And so have many other points in St. _Paul_’s epistles.
But _these are points which are ever liable to misconstructions, and have ever yet, more or less, been attended with them_――――And what points of revealed religion are those, which are not ever liable to misconstructions? Or of what material point can we say, that it has not ever yet, more or less, been attended with them?
_In the last century it occasioned great confusions in this nation_――――It occasioned! No; in no wise. It is demonstrable, the occasions of those confusions were quite of another kind.
_And it appears――――That since you have preached the doctrine, it has had its old consequences, or rather worse. It has been more misunderstood, more perverted and abused than ever_――――What! Worse consequences than regicide, (which you say, was the old one) and making our whole land a field of blood? Or has it been more perverted and abused, than when (in your account) it overturned the whole frame both of church and state?
12. You go on. ¹_The terms of the gospel are, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.――――But when we undervalue either of these terms, we involve the consciences of the weak in fatal perplexities; we give a handle to others to justify their impieties; we confirm the enemies of religion in their prejudices._
¹ Remarks, page 2.
All this I grant. But it affects not me. For I do not undervalue either faith or repentance.
¹_Was not irreligion and vice already prevailing enough in the nation, but we must――――throw snares in people’s way, and root out the remains of piety and devotion, in the weak and well-meaning? That this has been the case, your own confessions put beyond all doubt. And you even now hold and teach the principles, from which these dangerous consequences do plainly and directly follow._
¹ Page 3.
_Was not irreligion and vice already prevailing enough_ (whether I have increased them, we will consider by and by)――――_but we must throw snares in people’s way_――――God forbid! My whole life is employed in taking those snares out of people’s way, which the world and the devil have thrown there――――_And root out the remains of piety and devotion in the weak and well-meaning?_ Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself? Or of some other man?――――_Your own confessions put this beyond all doubt_――――What? That _I root out the remains of piety and devotion_? Not so. The sum of them all (recited above) amounts to this and no more: “That while my brother and I were absent from _London_, many weak men were tainted with wrong opinions: most of whom we recovered at our return: but even those who continued therein, did notwithstanding continue to live a holier life, than ever they did before they heard us preach.”――――_And you even now hold the principles from which these dangerous consequences do plainly and directly follow_――――But I know not where to find these consequences――――Unless it be in your title-page: there indeed I read of the very fatal tendency of justification by faith only, _the divisions and perplexities of the_ Methodists, _and the many errors relating both to faith and practice, which_ (as you conceive) _have already arisen among these deluded people_.
However ¹_you charitably believe, I was not aware of these consequences at first_. No, nor am I yet: though ’tis strange I should not, if they _so naturally succeed that doctrine_. I will go a step farther. I do not know, neither believe, that they ever did _succeed that doctrine_: unless perhaps _accidentally_; as they might have succeeded any doctrine whatsoever. And till the contrary is proved, those consequences cannot _shew_, that _these principles are not true_.
¹ Remarks, page 4.