THE language of Christ in the gospel is, "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Many have experienced the truth

Rev. Mark Wilks, of Norwich, of this declaration. His language

TO A MINISTER IN LONDON.

DEAR SIR,

ERE now I hope you are raised from your sofa, and are going about doing good.

In this pursuit, will you inquire after the young man of whom you spake, and let me know whether he could visit Norwich?

still is, "Whosoever will, let him come," and "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." O sinners, think how suitable is the provision of the gospel. Have you sins? To whom should you come but to the " Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world?" Have you souls that must be saved or lost for ever? To whom should you come but to him who is the "Saviour of souls ?" Are you aware, that I am still so poorly as to need after the present life there is help; and could we have a teach another? To whom should you er from Stepney, or any where come but unto him who "hath else, after God's own heart, we the words of eternal life," and should wish his continuance. A who is indeed “ the life of men ?” pulpit fop will not do for us. Is there such an awful thing as We want, learned or unlearned," Wrath to come," and are you a wise, zealous, faithful, plain, disinterested, humble, godly, and circumspect man. Such a one would find hearers here, and God would bless him.

exposed to it? To whom should you fly for deliverance but to him who "saves from the wrath to come?" And will he not receive you? If he readily gave himself into the hands of those who sought his life, will he withdraw from those who from a sense of their need seek his mercy? If he submitted to be taken by the hands of violence, is be not much more willing to be taken by the hands of faith? He who died to

redeem, and who by his word invites sinners to come, will he cast you off when you come? 0 no! Then come, come, come to Jesus, I beseech you, come.-I charge you, come.-Come, and he will give you life. Come, and

not the righteous;

Sinners Jesus came to call.

His arms are open, his heart is open, and if you are willing, he was never otherwise than willing, and will display his kindness; he will receive you graciously, and love you freely.

creatures. But this involves the total subversion of religion; for what idea can we form of a religion in which all the obligations of piety and morality are done away; in which nothing is binding, or imperative on the conscience? We may conceive of a religious code under all the possible

he will give you rest. Come, and he will receive you, and pardon, and heal, and cleanse, and save you. Knock, and he will open to you. None ever came to him for healing, and were sent away without it. Are you looking for something to recommend you ? and do you find and feel that you are poor, and wretched, and mi-gradations of laxness or severity, serable, and blind, and naked? of its demanding more or less, Let not this hinder you from or of its enforcing its injunctions coming, but rather incite you to by penalties more or less forcome. Come as you are; come midable: but to form a conceppoor, come needy, come guilty; tion of a system deserving the only come, only believe. name of religion, which prescribes no duties whatever, and is enforced by no sanctions, seems an impossibility. On this account it appears to me improper to speak of Antinomianism as a religious error: religion, whether true or false, has nothing to do with it it is rather to be considered as an attempt to substitute a system of subtle and specious impiety in the room of Christianity. In their own estimation, its disciples are a privileged class, who dwell in a secluded region of unshaken security, and lawless liberty, while the rest of the Christian world are the vassals of legal bondage, toiling in darkness and in chains. Hence whatever diversity of character they may display in other respects, a haughty and bitter disdain of every other class of professors is a universal feature. tempt and hatred of the most devout and enlightened Christians out of their own pale, seem one of the most essential elements of their being; nor were the ancient Pharisees ever more notorious for trusting in themselves that they were righteous, and despising others."

without money,

Come to Jesus Christ and buy.

Antinomianism Delineated;

BY THE

T.

REV. ROBERT HALL, A. M.
In his Preface to "Antinomianism
Unmasked," by the Bev. Samuel
Chase, A. M.

THE fundamental tenet of the system to which this treatise is opposed, consists in the denial of the obligation of believers to obey the precepts of Christ, in supposing that their interest in the merits of the Redeemer releases them from all subjection to his authority; and, as it is acknowledged on all hands, that he is the sole Lord of the Christian dis-"6 pensation, the immediate consequence is, that as far as they are concerned, the moral government of the Deity is annihilated; that they have ceased to be accountable

VOL. XI.

Con

Of the force of legitimate argument they seem to have little or no perception, having contracted

3 H

an inveterate and pernicious | every hope of eternal life is ne

cessarily presumptuous and unfounded, which is not connected with "keeping the commandments of God." They will perceive the beautiful analogy subsisting between the Mosaic and the Christian dispensation; and that the redemption wrought out upon the cross is just as subservient to the spiritual dominion of Christ over his people, as was the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt to the erection of a theocracy in the Holy Land: in a word, they will plainly see that the regal autho

habit of shutting their eyes against the plainest and most pointed declarations of the word of God. The only attempt they make to support their miserable system, is to adduce a number of detached and insulated passages of scripture, forcibly torn from their context, and interpreted with more regard to their sound, than to their meaning as ascertained by the laws of sober criticism. Could they be prevailed upon to engage in serious dispassionate controversy, some hope might be indulged of re-rity of Christ over his church beclaiming them; their errors would admit of an easy confutation: but the misfortune is, they seem to feel themselves as much released from the restraints of reason, as of moral obligation; and the intoxication of spiritual pride has incomparably more influence in forming their persuasions than the light of evidence.

longs to the very essence of the evangelical economy, considered as an annunciation of the Kingdom, or Reign of God.

To trace the progress of Antinomianism, and investigate the steps by which it has gradually attained its fearful ascendency, though an interesting inquiry, would lead me far beyond the limits of this Preface. Suffice it to suggest a few circumstances which appear to me to have

As far as they are concerned, my expectation of benefit from the following treatise is far from being sanguine. To others, how-contributed not a little to that ever, who may be in danger of falling a prey to their seduction, it may prove an important preservative; to the young and inexperienced it will hold out a faithful warning, by unmasking the deformity, and revealing the danger, of that pretended doctrine of grace, which is employed to annul the obligation of obedience. They will learn from this treatise, that the authority of Christ as Legislator, is perfectly compatible with his office as the Redeemer of his people; that the renewal of the soul in true holiness forms a principal part of the salvation he came to bestow; that the privileges of the evangelical dispensation are inseparably combined with its duties; and that

result. When religious parties have been long formed, a certain technical phraseology, invented in order to designate the peculiarities of the respective systems, naturally grows up: what custom has sanctioned, in process of time becomes law, and the slightest deviation from the consecrated diction comes to be viewed with suspicion and alarm. Now the technical language appropriated to the expression of the Calvinistic system in its nicer shades, however justifiable in itself, has, by its perpetual recurrence, narrowed the vocabulary of religion, and rendered obsolete many modes of expression which the sacred writers indulge without scruple. The latitude with which

they express themselves on various as a separate system. In the subjects has been gradually relin-systematic mode of instruction quished; a scrupulous and sys- they are consequently omitted, tematic cast of diction has suc- or so slightly and sparingly adceeded to the manly freedom and verted to, that they are gradually noble negligence they are accus. lost sight of; and when they are tomed to display; and many ex- presented to the attention, being pressions, employed without hesi-supported by no habitual mental tation in scripture, are rarely found, associations, they wear the feaexcept in the direct form of quotures of a strange and exotic tation, in the mouth of a modern character. They are repelled with Calvinist. disgust and suspicion, not because they are perceived to be at vari

In addition to this, nothing is more usual than for the zeal-ance with the dictates of inspious abettors of a system, with the ration, their agreement with which best intentions, to magnify the may be immediately obvious; importance of its peculiar tenets but purely because they deviate by hyperbolical exaggerations, from the trains of thought which calculated to identify them with the hearer is accustomed to purthe fundamental articles of faith. sue with complacency. It is Thus the Calvinistic doctrines purely an affair of taste; it is have often been denominated, neither the opposition of reason, by divines of deservedly high or of conscience, which is conreputation, the doctrines of grace; cerned, but the mere operation of implying, not merely their truth, antipathy. but that they constitute the very essence and marrow of the gospel. Heuce persons of little reflection have been tempted to conclude, that the zealous incul cation of these comprehends nearly the whole system of revealed truth, or as much of it at least as is of vital importance, and that no danger whatever can result from giving them the greatest possible prominence. But the transition from a partial exhibition of truth to the adoption of positive error is a most natural one: and he who commences with consigning certain important doc-points of morality, and to urge trines to oblivion, will generally them on scriptural motives, the end in perverting or denying difference between these, and them. The authority of the laws their usual strain of instruction, of Christ, his proper dominion has produced a sort of mental over his people, and the abso- revulsion, Conscious, meanwhile, lute necessity of evangelical obe- that they have taught nothing dience in order to eternal life, but the pure and uncorrupted though perfectly consistent in word of God, have inculcated my apprehension with Calvinism, no doctrine but what appears to form no part of it, considered be sustained by the fair interpre

2

The paucity of practical in struction, the practice of dwelling almost exclusively in the exercise of the ministry on doctrinal and experimental topics, with a sparing inculcation of the precepts of Christ, and the duties of morality, is abundantly sufficient, without the slightest admixture of error, to produce the effect of which we are speaking; nor is it to be doubted that even holy and exemplary men have by these means paved the way for Antinomianism. When they have found it necessary to advert to