to the reproach of thy husband! What could't thou fay more to let out his foolishness, than to charge him to be pleafed with the devil's attire ? Nay, nay, this is but a vain excufe, of fuch as go about to pleafe" (themfelves and) "others, rather than their husbands. She does but deferve fcorn, to fet out all her commendation in jewish and heathenifh apparel, and yet brag of her chriftianity, and fome times he is the cause of much deceit in her hufband's dealings, that fhe may be the more gorgeoufly fet out to the fight of the vain world. thou woman, not a chriftian, but worse than a Pagan, thou fetteft out thy pride, and makeft of thy indecent apparel the devil's net to catch fouls. Howfoever thou perfumeft thy felf, yet cannot thy beastlinefs be hidden. The more thou garnifheft thyfelf with these outward blazings, the less thou carest for the inward garnishing of thy mind. Hear, hear what Chrift's holy Apoftles do write." Then fol. low thofe paffages of St. Peter and St. Paul, which you fuppofe I" do not rightly understand." To convince you, however, that our Church has as much of "the fuperftitious and contracted fpirit of a hermit" as myself, I fhall plead a moment more against finery, in her own words: "The wife of an heathen being asked why she wore no gold; fhe anfwered, that he thought her husbands's virtues fufficient ornaments. How much more ought every chriftian to think himfelf fufficiently garnished with our Saviour Chrift's heavenly virtues! But perhaps fome will anfwer, that they must do fome thing to fhew their birth and blood: as though thefe things" (jewels and finery "were not common to those who are moft vile: as though thy hufband's riches could not be better bestowed than in fuch fuperfluities, as though when thou waft christened, thou didst not RENOUNCE the pride of this world, and the pomp of the flesh. If thou fayeft, that the custom is to be followed, I ask of thee, Whofe cuftom fhould be followed ? Of the wife or of fools? If thou fayest, Of the wife; then, I fay, follow them; for fools cuftoms, who fhould frould follow but fools. If any lewd custom be ufed, be thou the first to break it: labour to diminish it, and lay it down, and thou shalt have more praife before God by it, than by all glory of fuch fuperfluity. I fpeak not against convenient apparel, for every ftate agrecable; but against the fuperfluity, whereby thou and thy hulband are compelled to rob the poor, to maintain thy coftlinefs. Hear how holy queen Efther fetteth out these goodly ornaments, as they are called, when in order to fave God's people the put them on: "Thou knoweft, O Lord, the neceffity which I am driven to, to put on this apparel, and that I abhor this fign of pride, and that I defy it as a filthy cloth." Hom. against Excefs of Apparel. So far is our Church from fiding with Antinomian folifidianifm, which perpetually decries good works, that fhe rather leans to the other extreme. If Popery is about half way between Proteftantifm and the Minutes," you will hardly think that the. mass itself is a quarter of the way, between Dr. Crifp's fcheme, and the following propofitions extracted from the Homily on Alms-deeds. "Moft true is that saying of St. Auguftin, Via cali pauper eft, relieving of the poor is the right way to heaven. Chrift promifeth a reward to those who give but a cup of cold water in his name to them that have need of it; and that reward is the kingdom of heaven. No doubt therefore God regardeth highly, that which he rewardeth so liberally. He that hath been liberal to the poor, let him know that his godly doings are accepted, and thankfully taken at God's hands, which he will requite with double and treble; for fo fays the wife man: He who fheweth mercy to the poor, doth lay his money in bank to the Lord for a large intereft and gain; the gain being chiefly the poffeffion of the life everlafting, through the merits of Chrift." When our Church has given us this ftrong dofe of legality, that he may by a defperate remedy remove a defperate difeafe, and kill or cure the Antinomian spirit in all her children; left the violent medicine C 3 medicine fhould hurt us, fhe, like a prudent mo ther, inftantly adminifters the following balfamic corrective. "Some will fay, If charitable works are able to reconcile us to God, and deliver us from damnation, then are Chrift's merits defaced; then are we justified by works, and by our deeds may we merit heaven. But understand, dearly beloved, that no godly men, when they, in extolling the dignity, profit, and effect of virtuous and liberal alms, do fay that it bringeth us to the favour of God, do mean that our work is the ORIGINAL cause of our acceptance before God, &c. for that were indeed to deface Christ, and to defraud him of his glory. But they mean, that the Spirit of God mightily working in them who feemed before children of wrath, they DECLARE by their outward deeds, that they are the undoubted children of God.-By their tender pity (wherein they fhew themfelves to be like unto God, they declare openly and manifeftly unto the fight of all men, that they are the fons of God. For as the good fruit does argue the goodnefs of the tree, fo doth the good deed of a man prove the goodness of him that doeth it." In juftice to our holy Church, whom fome reprefent as a Patronefs of Antinomianifm; in brotherly love to you,honoured Sir, who feem to judge of her doctrines by a few expreffions which custom made her ufe after St. Auguftin; in tender compaffion to many of her members who are strangers to her true fentiments; and in common humanity to Mr. Wefley, who is perpetually accused of erecting Popery upon her ruins; I have prefented you with this extract from our Homilies. If you lay by the veil of prejudice, which keeps the light from your honeft heart, I humbly hope it will convince you, that our Church nobly contends for St. James's evangelical legality: that she pleads for the rewardablenefs (which is all we understand by the merit) of works, in FAR ftronger terms than Mr. Wefley does in the Minutes; and that in perpetually making our juftification, merited by Chrift, turn upon the the inftrumentality of a lively faith, and the evidence of good works, as there is opportunity to do them, the tears up Calvinism and Antinomian delufions by the very roots. Leaving you to confider, how you fhall bring about a reconciliation between your Fourth Letter and our godly Homilies, I fhall juft take the liberty to remind you, that when you entered, or took your degrees at Oxford, you fubfcribed to the 39 Articles; the 35th of which declares, that "the Homilies contain a godly and wholefome doctrine, neceffary for thefe" Papiftical and Antinomian " times." That, keeping clear from both extremes, we may evidence the godlinefs of that doctrine, by the foundness of their publications, and the exemplarinefs of our conduct, is the cordial prayer of Honoured and dear Sir, Your obedient Servant in the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies of the Church of England, J. F. LETTER LETTER III. To RICHARD HILL, Elq; Honoured and dear Sir, you, that our IN my laft, I endeavoured to show Church, far from warping to Crifpianity, ftrongly inforces St. James's undefiled religion: let us now fee what more modern divines, efpecially the Puritan, thought about the important fubject of our controverfy Page 13, you oppofe the doctrine which you have (p. 11.) fo heartily wished to be FIRMLY ESTA BLISHED in the mouth of two witneffes. "If Mr. Whitefield had been now living, fay you, I doubt not but he would have told you, that if need fhould be, he was ready to offer himself among the foremoft of thofe true Proteftants, who, you tell us, could have burned against the doctrine of a fecond juftification by works. And as to the Puritan divines, there is not one of the many hundreds of them, but what abhorred the doctrine of a fecond juftification by works, as full of rottennefs and deadly poifon.Surely then it is not without juftice that I accufe you of the groffefl perverfions and mifreprefentations, that perhaps ever proceeded from any author's pen. The afhes of that laborious man of God, Mr. Whitefield, you have raked up, in order to bring him as a coadjutor to fupport your tottering doctrine of a fecond juftification by works." And again, p. 91 and 92, I am not afraid to challenge Mr. Fr, to fix upon one Proteftant Minister, either Puritan or of the church of England, from the beginning of the Reformation to the reign of Charles the Second, who held the doctrines he has been |