A discourse of the true nature of the Gospel demonstrating that it is no…

It is plain then that this Assertion of the Gospel's being a new Law, is a Popish, and Socinian, and Arminian Doctrine. What then shall I brand my Reverend Brother with any of these hated Names? No, I am so far from doing it, that I do not so much as think him to be on the Side of any of the three Parties, tho he is so liberal in bestowing Titles of Dishonour upon those who differ from him, as to call them Antinomians; and so by virtue of an hard Word, to name them the greatest Villains which can live upon Earth.

I know very well that the Papists, together with asserting the Gospel to be a Law, assert the Merit of Works; which is disclaimed by my Brother, and yet is really included in his Hypothesis: For what is Merit, but when the Reward is due to some Work done? And now if the Gospel be in that respect a Law, that it requires Duties as Conditions of having a Claim to its Blessings, and promises them to the Performance of those Conditions, then to them performed, tho of never so little Consideration, the Blessings must be given not as the Fruits of mere Grace, but as the Results of a just Debt. However, tho the Opinion is not professedly so rank as Popery, and Arminianism; yet in the least Nearness to those destructive Errors there is Danger, and within the very Confines dwell Plagues and Death. The People cannot then with too much Zeal, be warned of the hazardous Approaches which lead them on to be betrayed into the Enemies Camp. They understand not the Niceties of Controversy, and of Errors so refined that they escape their discerning they are not afraid, and yet all the while the Venom works more desperately for being subtilized, and the invisible Spirits of it mortally seize their Brains, when they startled at the sight of the Poison offered in its grosser Bulk. I hope then my Reverend Brother, and all others, will pardon me if my Love to the Truth hath stirred me with some just Indignation against the Opinions, which favour those dangerous Errors concerning Justification by Works, and if I have been moved to represent them in their own exact Shape and natural Colours. For tho I will not avow these newly advanced Doctrines to be rank Popery, and Arminianism; yet I must say, that they want but little of taking that Degree, and that even in this respect they are the more hurtful. For when a gross Error is wire-drawn to a slender Thread, it is the more mischievous in being not easily discernible, since so it slides insensibly into the Minds of the Unwary. What tho the Merit of good Works is disclaimed; what tho the Socinian and Arminian Inferences from the Gospel's being a new Law, are disowned; yet would it not be better for the Preservation of the Truth in its Purity, and for the Safety of the Souls of the People, to forbear such Phrases and Modes of Speech, which by the Enemies of the Gospel are made use of to very ill Purposes?