to it. I have observed, that many people have been called Antinomians; yet very few call themselves so. What is antinomianism? Gai. Enmity, or opposition, to the law of God. Crisp. Are not all men then by nature Antinomians? Gai. I believe they are; for the carnal mind is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Crisp. By this passage it should seem, that God and his law are so united, that a non-subjection to the one is enmity to the other. Gai. How should it be otherwise? The sum of the law is love; and in this case, not to love is to be at enmity. Crisp. All men, however, do not profess to be at enmity, either with God, or his law. Gai. True; but many men are very different, you know, from what they profess to be, and even from what they conceive of themselves. Crisp. I can easily conceive of various wicked characters being enemies to the divine law, whatever they may say in its favour. Gai. And have you not observed, that all the different species of false religion agree in this particular? Crisp. I do not know whether I have sufficientlyTo what do you refer? Gai. I refer to the different forms in which mankind quiet their consciences, and cherish their hopes, while the love of God and man are neglected. What is superstition but the substitution of something ceremonial, sonmething that may be done consistent with a heart at enmity with God, in the place of that which is moral? The tithing of mint and cummin, and various D2 things of the kind, were much more agreeable to the old pharisees, than judgment, mercy, and the love of God. The modern jews are greatly attached to ceremony; but the shocking indevotion which distinguishes their worship, and the mercenary spirit which too generally pervades their dealings, sufficiently discover their aversion to that law of which they make their boast. Impiety and cruelty are prominent features in the faces of our modern heathens, with all their refinement; and the same is observable in others who are less refined: gods and weapons of war are to be found in the most barbarous heathen nations. Ignorant as they are, they have all learned to violate the two great branches of the moral law. * Beads, and pilgrimages, and relics, and all the retinue of popish ceremonies, are but substitutes for the love of God and our neighbour. The formal round of ceremonies attended to by pharisaical professors of all communities, is the same. Let an attentive reader examine the system of Socinus, and even of Arminius, and he will find them agreed in opposing the native equity and goodness of the moral law. The former claims it as a matter of justice, that allowances be made for human error and imperfection; and the latter, though it speaks of grace, and the mediation of Christ, and considers the gospel as a new, mild, and remedial law, yet would accuse you of making the Almighty a tyrant, if this grace were withheld, and the terms of the moral law strictly adhered to. All these, as well as that species of false religion, which has more generally gone by the name of antinomianism, you see are agreed in this particular. This last, which expressly disowns the moral law * This reflection was made by a friend of mine on visiting The British Museum, and seeing various curiosities from heathen countries; amongst which were a number of idols, and instruments of war. as a rule of life, sets up the gospel in opposition to it; and substitutes visionary enjoyments as the evidence of an interest in gospel blessings, in place of a conformity to its precepts-This last, I say, though it professes to be greatly at variance with several of the foregoing schemes, is nearer akin to them than its advocates are willing to admit. If the love of God and man be left out of our religion, it matters but little what we substitute in its place. Whether it go by the name of reason or superstition, religious ceremony or evangelical liberty, all is delusion; all arises from the same source, and tends to the same issue. Good men may in a degree have been beguiled, and for a time carried away with these winds of false doctrine; but I speak of things, and their natural tendencies, not of persons. In short, we may safely consider it as a criterion by which any doctrine may be tried; if it be unfriendly to the moral law, it is not of God, but proceedeth from the father of lies. Crisp. What you have observed seems very clear, and very affecting: but I have heard it remarked, that some of these systems naturally attach their adherents to the works of the law. Gai. This is very true; but there is a wide difference between an attachment to the law, and an attachment to the works of the law, as the ground of eternal life; as much as between the spirit of a faithful servant, who loves his master, loves his family, loves his service, and never wishes to go out free; and that of a slothful servant, who, though he hates his master, hates his family, hates his emyloyment, and never did him any real service, yet has the presumption to expect his reward. Crisp. This distinction seems of great importance, as it serves to reconcile those scriptures which speak in favour of the law, and those which speak against an attachment to the works of it. Gai. It is the same distinction, only in other words, which has commonly been made respecting the law as a rule of life, and as a covenant. Crisp. Will you be so obliging as to point out a few of the consequences of denying the law to be the rule of life, and representing it as at variance with the gospel? Gai. First: This doctrine directly militates against all those scriptures which speak in favour of the moral law, and afford us an honourable idea of it: Such as the following,-0 how I love thy law! -The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good-I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it-Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law-I delight in the law of God after the inner man-I with my mind serve the law of God. Secondly: This doctrine reflects upon God himself for having given a law under one dispensation, which is at variance with a gospel given under another. Thirdly: It justifies the sinner in the breach of the law. There can be no evil in sin, but in proportion to the goodness of that law of which it is a transgression. Fourthly: It is in direct opposition to the life and death of the Saviour. By the former he obeyed its precepts, by the latter endured its penalty, and by both declared it to be holy, just, and good. Every reflection therefore upon the moral law, is a reflection upon Christ. Fifthly: It strikes at the root of all personal religion, and opens the flood-gates to iniquity. Those who imbibe this doctrine talk of being sanctified in Christ, in such a manner as to supersede all personal and progressive sanctification in the believer. ; DIALOGUE THE EIGHTA. CRISPUS. On Human Depravity. RISPUS. I thank you, my dear Gaius, for your observations on various important subjects; and now, if agreeable, I should be glad of your thoughts on the painful but interesting subject of Human Depravity. Gaius. An interesting subject, indeed! Perhaps there is no one truth in the scriptures, of a more fundamental nature with respect to the gospel-way of salvation. I never knew a person verge towards the Arminian, the Arian, the Socinian, or the Antinomian schemes, without first entertaining diminutive notions of human depravity, or blame-worthiness. Crisp. Wherein do you conceive depravity to consist? Gai. In the opposite to what is required by the divine law. Crisp. The sum of the divine law is love; the essence of depravity then must consist in the want of love to God and our neighbour; or in setting up some other object, or objects, to the exclusion of them. Gai. True; and perhaps it will be found that all the objects set up in competition with God and our neighbour, may be reduced to one, and that is self. Private self-love seems to be the root of depravity, the grand succedaneum in human affections to the love of God and man. Self-admiration, self-will, and selfrighteousness, are but different modifications of it. Where this prevails, the creature assumes the place of the Creator, and seeks his own gratification, honour, and interest, as the ultimate end of all his actions. Hence, when the apostle describes men under a va |