Section 1175
An Answer To The Birmingham Dialogue-Writer, Upon The Following Subjects
The Divinity Of Christ, Irresistible Grace, Election, Imputed Righteousness, Original Sin, Perseverance, Free-Will, Baptism
HAVING lately met with a pamphlet, entitled, A Dialogue between a Baptist and a Churchman, occasioned by the Baptists opening a new Meeting-house for reviving old Calvinistical doctrines, and spreading Antinomian, and other errors, at Birmingham in Warwickshire, Part 1. by a Consistent Christian; I prevailed upon myself to give it a reading, and make some remarks upon it. The author of it has thought fit to write in a dialogue -way, probably for this reason, that he might have the opportunity of making the Baptist speak what he pleases, and what he thought he was best able to reply to: So far he has acted wisely, that he has not made him say such things, he was conscious to himself, he was not able to answer. However, this must be acknowledged, that though he has represented the Baptist in the debate as a very weak man; yet, as very mild, calm, and good-natured, and by far a better christian, and of a more christian spirit and temper than himself; who, notwithstanding all his pretences to a calm and charitable religion, casts firebrands, arrows, and deat h; (Proverbs 26:18) reproaching, in a very mean and scandalous manner, both men and doctrines that are not agreeable to his own sentiments. One would think his Baptist never attended upon, at least, must not have received any ill impression, from the wild, furious, and uncharitable preachers at Birmingham; or else that the preachers that come there are not such persons this writer would have them thought to be.
I observe, that in his running title in page 3, he calls his dialogue, A Dialogue between a new Baptist and a Churchman; what he means by a new Baptist, I am pretty much at a loss to know, since the Baptist, in this dispute, does not appear to have entertained any different notions about Baptism than what the Baptists have always held, nor any other doctrines but what the greater part of the Baptist churches have always asserted, as is manifest from their printed confessions of faith, published many years ago. Perhaps he calls him so, because he is one that has been lately baptized, or because the Baptists have opened a new Meeting-house at Birmingham; which, it seems, is the occasion of our author’s writing this dialogue; at which he is very uneasy, and with the preachers that come thither; it being opened, as he says, for reviving old Calvinistical doctrines; by which, if any judgment is to be made by the dialogue, he means the doctrines of Christ’s Divinity, Election, Original Sin, Efficacious Grace, Imputed Righteousness, and the Saints Perseverance; doctrines which our first reformers from Popery set out with, and the reformed churches embraced; and which also the established church of England, of which this writer would be thought to be a member, in her Articles maintains; doctrines which no church, community, or set of men under any denomination, have reason to be ashamed of; and it is the glory of the Particular Baptists, and, what is greatly to their honor, that they are so zealously affected to those truths, and to the utmost of their abilities defend them, in an age, when there are so many apostates from the faith once delivered to the saints. But, it seems, this new meeting at Birmingham is opened also for spreading Antinomian, and other errors; what those Antinomian, and other errors are, he does not tell us. He cannot mean the above doctrines, since they are distinguished from them, and besides were never reckoned Antinomian ones; perhaps we shall hear of them in the next part, for at present we are only entertained with the first part of this mighty work, consisting of forty-four pages. We are to have a second part, and I know not whether a third, fourth, and fift h, or how many more. If this writer goes on at this rate, we may expect proposals for printing by subscription The Works of the Consistent Christian, in Folio. This puts me in mind of what I formerly have seen, The History of Tom Thumb, in Folio, with Dr. Wagstaff’s notes upon it.
Our author stiles himself a Consistent Christian; for my own part, I cannot help being so uncharitable (if it must be reckoned so) as to call in question his Christianity; I take him to be a Heathen, and not a Christian, much less a consistent one; since he gives strong intimation of his belief of a supreme and subordinate Deity, a superior God, and an inferior one; and both as the objects of religious worship. He says, [5463] that God the Father is the supreme and most high God, and that Jesus Christ the Son of God is not so; but yet he is a God, and such an one as all men are commanded to worship; and, in consequence, there must be two different Gods, two distinct Deities, the one superior, the other inferior, which are to be worshipped; and if we may worship two Gods, we may worship two hundred: and if this is not heathenism, and downright idolatry, I know not what is. But let him be admitted a Christian, if it can be, is he a consistent one? No; does the mild, calm and gentle spirit of christianity appear in him? His dialogue is a standing proof against it. Are his notions consistent with the doctrines of christianity? This is easily determined; for if there are any doctrines peculiar to christianity, they are those he militates against. Is he consistent with his character as a churchman? Far from it, he contradicts and opposes the Articles of the Church of England; he is no true son of the church, but a degenerate plant, and ought to be rejected as such: though I am informed, it is greatly suspected that he is a Presbyterian preacher; and if so, he has shown much insincerity and unfaithfulness, things not consistent with a Christian, by taking upon him the name of a Churchman, and talking of our Church and you Dissenters: [5464] But be he what he will, a Churchman or a Dissenter, to me he appears to be a Posture or Dancing-master; he sets up for a judge of gesture and action; he can tell you what motion is proper or is not for the pulpit or the stage, and no doubt elsewhere. The gestures of the Baptist preachers at Birmingham, it seems, are not agreeable; they do not behave secundum artem; he represents them as very ridiculous and antic. One would imagine, from his account of them, that they have got into the way of the Quakers; yea, that their preachers are women preachers, nay, even that the old Sybils, Pythonesses, and Daemon Prophetesses of the Heathens, were risen out of their graves, and were come to Birmingham, and there playing their old pranks. How easy is it for persons to put others in an odd and awkward dress, and then laugh at them? But, to leave him possessed of his little diversions, I proceed to consider what is more serious, and ought to be treated with more regard and decency than this author has thought fit to show, namely, the doctrines which these preachers assert, and he opposes. But before he brings them into the debate, he is pleased to give us his sense of Orthodoxy, and to explain some passages of scripture, which by the help of his Concordance he has collected together, where the word sound is used, as applied to doctrine, speech and faith. As to orthodoxy, I can assure this writer, that the Baptists do not make any confession, catechism, articles, or any writings of men, as he suggests, [5465] the standard of it, but the Bible only; and though soundness of doctrine and uprightness of conversation ought to go together, and the former has a tendency to promote the latter, yet they are two different things, which this author seems to confound; nor will the text in Psalm 109:10 prove them to be the same: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments. Doing the commandments of God according to his will, from a principle of love and gratitude, with a view to his glory, and without any dependence upon what is done for salvation, is indeed a proof of a man’s having a good understanding of the will of God, of the way of salvation by Christ, and of the doctrine of grace, which teaches men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. But then, doctrine and practice, knowledge and obedience, are distinct things; and it is possible for a man to have a considerable share of speculative knowledge of gospel-truths, and yet not live uprightly in his life and conversation; and, on the other hand, to perform acts of morality as to outward appearance, and to be externally upright, sincere and good, and have no good understanding of the truths and doctrines of the gospel.
The passages of scripture cited [5466] out of the epistles of the apostle Paul to Timothy and Titus, which speak of sound doctrine, speech and faith, are to be understood of such doctrinal truths as are to be found in and gathered out of the word of God, which have a tendency to influence and promote, and, when attended with the Spirit of God, do really and powerfully influence and promote practical religion; but then they are distinct from that practical religion which they serve. Sound doctrine, in 1 Timothy 1:10, is the same with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which, though it no ways countenances, but is as contrary to whoring and lewdness, lying and stealing, malice and murder, as the law which is made for and lies against such as commit these things; yet it is distinct from the law which forbids these things, and condemns persons that are guilty of them. A sound mind, or rather the spirit of a sound mind, in 2 Timothy 1:7, is such a mind or spirit, that he who is possessed of it, is not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, verse 8, and particularly of that glorious part of it, verse 9, where our salvation and vocation of God are said to be not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. The form of sound words, in verse 13, is distinct from faith and love, and the exercise of these graces, in which it was either heard, or to be held fast. It does not, indeed, mean the Assemblies Catechism, nor any Church Articles, nor any words which man’s wisdom teacheth; yet the Articles of the Church of England and the Assemblies Catechism, so far as they agree with the words of scripture, the words which the Holy Ghost hath taught, ought each of them to be esteemed a form of sound words, and to be abode by against all opposition; though this author rudely suggests, that they are what man’s folly have taught; when, it is well known they were both of them drawn up by men of great learning and judgment, gravity and piety. A fine Churchman, or a pretty Presbyterian parson this! Sound doctrine, in 2 Timothy 4:3, is the word of the gospel, which the apostle exhorts Timothy to preach constantly, verse 2. the same with the truth, and stands opposed to fables, verse 4, by the constant preaching of which, watching in it, and abiding by it, Timothy would do the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of his ministry, verse 5. Sound doctrine, in Titus 1:9, is the faithful word of salvation alone by Christ and his righteousness, which is to be held fast in spite of all gainsayers, unruly and vain talkers, such as our author declares himself to be. To be sound in the faith, verse 13, is opposed to giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men, verse 14, to infidelity, and a mind and conscience defiled with bad principles, verse 15, which it is no wonder should be attended with bad practices, notwithstanding their profession of knowing God when they have no regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 16. Sound doctrine, in Titus 2:1, is distinct from the practice of virtue and morality, and the rules thereof, given to both sexes, to young and old, in the following verse: these are not the sound doctrine itself, but the things which become it, as this author might have learnt from the text itself. To be sound in faith, verse 2, is firmly to believe the doctrine of faith; to be sound in charity, is to love the Lord, his people, truths and ordinances, with all the heart and soul; and to be sound in patience, is cheerfully and constantly to bear whatever we are called to suffer for Christ’s sake and his gospel. Sound speech, verse 9, is the doctrine of grace delivered in the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus, without corrupting the word of God; speaking it with all faithfulness, integrity and sincerity, as in the sight of God. Upon the whole, it is easy to observe that the contexts of these several texts do not countenance the exposition this writer has given of them. I shall now attend to what he has to object to those doctrines which he undertakes to oppose, and refute; as,