"derived from his attentions." We soon find these writers, however, exclaiming against Mr. Wesley most violently; and Dr. Coke and Mr. Moore are attacked for presuming to speak of Mr. Wesley, as having a single eye, and being a man of God when he went to America; and Messrs. Bogue and Bennett pronounce ex cathedra, that he was at enmity with God, under his wrath, and destitute of true virtue, or holiness, which is the inseparable companion of the faith of God's elect. We must here demur to the sentence of these hasty, self-created judges, who deal very unfairly with Mr. Wesley, and also with Dr. Coke and Mr. Moore. In their ardent zeal to condemn Mr. Wesley, they use such presumptuous language as may confound the humble reader, and almost induce him to believe that God himself had given them some special revelation concerning Mr. Wesley's state. They have forgotten that they are in the presence of him who saith, I search the heart, &c. The very pas sage of Scripture to which Dr. Coke and Mr. Moore allude, Messrs. Bogue and Bennett say, expressly declares that "he "was in God's esteem nothing." Of the passage of Scripture which Messrs. Bogue and Bennett have found, which declares that Mr. Wesley was in God's esteem nothing, many of our readers will know nothing, although they may well remember the passage of Scripture to which Dr. Coke and Mr. Moore allude, which says, though I have the gift of prophecy, and have not charity, I am nothing; and they may think that, as Messrs. Bogue and Bennett have not much charity, they are in danger of being reduced to nothing, and that at least their assertion of what the Scripture says of Mr. Wesley is nothing, or, Vor, et præterea nihil.

Mr. Wesley was a man whose talents and learning were employed through a long life, in spreading the knowledge of true religion. His heart was enlarged with compassion for sinners, and with the belief that Christ had tasted death for every man, and that God would have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth, and be saved. Mr. Wesley, therefore, published the glad tidings of salvation to all people, knowing that he was not tan talizing his hearers when he did so, but that salvation was within their reach. Our historians have given us sufficient evidence of their dislike of the doctrines which Mr. Wesley preached, and which the Methodists believe; but unfortunately in elevating themselves into the office of censors of the Methodists, they have shown such deficiency of information, and have fallen into such gross blunders, as despoil their history of credibility, and render it not worth the reading,

We will give our readers positive proof of the truth of what
Vol. III. p. 12. Bogue and Bennett,

we say. One part of the distinguishing creed of the Arminian Methodists, Messrs. Bogue and Bennett state to be, "The great "doctrine of Pelagianism, which the Church of England condemns "in her Articles, that the death of Christ was intended alike for "all." These are the words of Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, in Vol. III. p. 35. Now what are the facts on this subject. In the first place, the only doctrine of the Pelagians which the Church mentions in her Articles, is that doctrine by which it is denied that original sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, and by which it is asserted that original sin consists in the following of Adam, and not in any infection of nature derived from him. This is the doctrine which the Church of England condemns in her ninth Article; and we assert in direct contradiction of Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, that not one word is to be found in any one of the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England against the great doctrine of Pelagianism, as they call it, that the death of Christ was intended alike for all. In fact, nothing can be more incorrect than the "unhappy state"ment" of these men. The Church does not condemn this doctrine in her Articles, nor charge it on Pelagianism, nor any thing like it. The whole is a mistatement, and we cannot conceive how two men who ought to have corrected each other in their work of authorship, could have shewn such want of information, or have discredited themselves so grossly. But established creeds, they say, "are sure at length to fall into contemptuous desuetude;"* and if they had not imagined that the thirty-nine Articles had fallen into contemptuous desuetude, and that no man would ever look into them again, they would surely have looked into them themselves, before they had pretended to quote any doctrine from them.

Any man depending on the assertion of Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, and not knowing what the Articles of the Church are, would expect to find that one of the most prominent Articles of faith of the Church is, that the death of Christ was not intended alike for all. But not one of the Articles states any such doctrine. On the contrary, the second Article says that Christ suffered, "to be a sacrifice not only for original guilt, but also "for actual sins of men." These words, however, may be limited, by a Calvinistic explanation to an elect few, and it may be said that there is no doubt that Christ was a sacrifice both for the original and actual sin of men, i. e. of the elect. But there is another Article of the church which Messrs. Bogue and Bennett have forgotten, and from which we will now present our readers with an extract. In the thirty-first Article, Of the one oblation of Christ finished on the cross, we have these remarkable and * Bogue and Bennett. Vol. III. p. 35.

comprehensive words: "The offering of Christ once made, is "that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all "the sins of the whole world, both original and actual, and there " is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone." We doubt whether it is possible to find words which can convey more clearly than these, the doctrine which our authors say the Church condemns.

If these extracts from the Articles do not convince our readers that Messrs. Bogue and Bennett have entirely misrepresented the doctrine of the Church of England, we might produce an extract from that most excellent prayer in the Sacrament service in which it is stated that Christ, by his death upon the cross, made "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." We do not consider the Prayer Book as a second volume of the Bible; and notwithstanding the assertion of our authors, we do not believe that any of the members of the Church of England, are weak enough to consider it as such: but the quotation which we have made from it, proves that Messrs. Bogue and Bennett are ignorant of its contents.

Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, may say, as they do say, that they have never sworn to the orthodoxy of the Church of England, and that they are not implicated in what she believes; but we say that they are implicated in every misrepresentation which they publish of the doctrines of the Church. If there is one doctrine of the Church of England which is more notorious in her formularies than another, it is the doctrine that Christ made atonement for all the sins of the whole world.

We might here dwell on the absurdities of the Calvinistic doctrines of the eternal election of a few, for whose sins alone Christ made atonement, and the eternal reprobation of millions, for whose sins Christ made no atonement; but these doctrines, and all their consequences, are fully exposed in the writings of Mr. Wesley, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Walter Sellon, and many of the Methodist Preachers. The dangers from such delusions, we believe, are now far less than they were forty years ago. Such doctrines are not now believed to be the Gospel; and certainly they convey no good news to any man, unless he could be assured by some infallible sign that he is one of the few who have been elected from eternity. The most pious clergy in the Church, we have sufficient reason to believe, now preach the doctrine of an universal atonement by the blood of Christ, and invite all mankind to partake of the blessings of it, and no longer talk of limiting the mercy of the Most High to a favourite few, and we pray God that the truth of their doctrine, and the purity of their lives, may make them abundantly useful in the world.

We will pass over many of the incorrect statements which are

The whole of the Apostle's argument, which is in the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, is most logically arranged, and most incontestably conclusive, and we will give it in all its force. The words are, (Rom. v. 12, 18, 19,)" As by one man, sin "entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed "upon all men, for that all have sinned: Therefore, as by the "offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, steven so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon "all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's dis"obedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of

one shall many be made righteous." The Apostle thus demonstrates the analogy between the effect of Adam's offence, and the effect of Christ's death, and whatever word is used to ex

We omit, for the present, and for the sake of brevity, the parenthesis included in the 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 verser.

press the number of those who suffered by the sin of Adam, the same word is used to express the number of those who are benefited by the death of Christ. In verse 18, it is said that judg ment came upon all men, as navтas aveрwπous, to condemnation, and that the free gift came upon all men, εις παντας ανθρώπους unto justification of life. In the next verse it is said that, by one man's disobedience, many, o oλo rather, the many, were made sinners, and that by the obedience of one, shall many, o

ho, the many again, be made righteous. The numbers there fore of those, who are made sinners, and of those, who are made righteous, are the same. But the 15th verse, which stands in the parenthesis, will give additional strength to the argument. "But not as the offence, so "also is the free gift." The offence and the free gift are analogous, but yet there is a most important differ ence between them, which the Apostle states. The grace of God by Jesus Christ, hath abounded much more than the offence. "For if through the offence of one, many, oi noλko, the many, be. "dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, "which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto TouS "Tolhos, the many." Thus, the grace of God hath abounded beyond the offence, or exceeded its extent.

When the Apostle, in the passages which have been quoted, uses the word many or multitudes, the expression must be taken in the same sense as when he uses the word all, otherwise his argument is destroyed; and nothing can be more contrary to all correct reasoning on the subject, than to say that the word many may mean all, as applied to Adam's offence, but it means only a fea, as applied to the benefit of Christ's death.

Mr. Wesley then was right, in fact, when he said that, as by one man's disobedience all men were made sinners, so, by the obedience of one, all were made righteous.

Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, have as great a dislike to the doctrine that Christ died for all men, as to the doctrine of free mercy for all men, as preached by the Methodists; and they are loud in their condemnation of Mr. Wesley's Sermon on Free Grace, from which they give us an extract, which, they say, may afford a sufficient proof of its spirit.* The extract begins, "how would the enemy of God and man rejoice to hear these "things were so !" &c. That is, how would the devil rejoice to hear," that thousands and millions of men, without any preced"ing offence or fault of theirs, were unchangeably doomed to "everlasting_burnings." But these words are not quoted by Bogue and Bennett, in explanation of the extract which they give us; nor have they chosen to state or make any attempt to * Bogue and Bennett, Vol. IV. p. 230, VOL. XXXVI. FEBRUARY, 1813.

*P*