Doctrine of Simple Repentance) was for two other Reasons very ill chofen by this Author, to comment upon; when he had a Mind to introduce his Doctrine of Simple Repentance.

Firft, because it is a Parable; that is, it is a Discourse wholly dictated in that kind of Stile which the Author and his Patrons or Affociates call Figurative and Improper; to which he and they have conceiv'd fuch an Averfion, that himself, in his Work on Repentance, has enter'd his Exception and Protest against more than one half of the Holy Scriptures of the New Teftament, on this Suppofition merely, that they are penn'd in fuch Figurative and Improper Stile; and, that nothing is, therefore, to be directly argued and prov'd from fuch Scriptures. How inconfiftent is he with himself in this, to fet afide all Figurative Scripture-Paffages, and yet to deduce all the Arguments in his own Book, at the fame time, from a Parable? That is, from a Paffage wholly of, what himself calls Figures? But,

made up

2dly. The faid Paffage is by him ill chofen, not only because it is a Parable, as aforefaid; but alfo, because it is a Parable compos'd, for the moft Part, of Expreffions, which are so far from favouring his Doctrine of Simple Repentance, that they are as oppofite as is poffible to it. Among this fort of Expreffions I may reckon, thofe of the mighty Famine arifing in that Land, whither the Prodigal went to Sojourn; of the Prodigal's being there in

Want;

Want; of his defiring to be fed with the Husks which the Swine did Eat, and no Man gave unto him; of his Father's feeing, and having compaffion on him, while he was yet a great way off; and, of-his Father's running to meet aud receive him, of-his Father's commanding his Servants to bring forth the best Robe, and put it on him; to put a Ring on his Hand, and Shoes on his Feet; and to bring the fatted Galf and kill it. By all which is understood, ft, on the Part of the Apoftate and Prodigal Son, that Defection from the true God and our Saviour, which causes a Spiritual Famine, and brings Leannefs withal into the Soul; which creates a falfe Appetite to be fed with the Husks which the impure Swine do Eat; that is, with the coarse and polluted Imaginations neceffarily growing of a corrupt Religion or none, and giving no Satisfaction to the Cravings of the Spiritual Mind or Appetite; whence Faintings of Confcience, and (if the Cafe be not defperate) Compunction, and a Longing to return to the Faith and Worship of the true God and our Saviour. 2dly. On the Part of the Father (is understood] that preventing and affifting Grace; that Clothing of us with the Robes of our Saviour's Righteousness; that Shoeing of our Feet with the Preparation of his Gospel of Peace; and that providing for us the Propitiatory and Euchariftic Sacrifice of Chrift, which the Holy Scriptures do every where teach to be fo neceffary to us, that, without thefe, and,

indeed,

indeed, otherwife than by thefe, no Man can have access unto the Father. There is not a Sentence in the Parable, which, when rightly explain'd and applied, is for his Doctrine of Simple Repentance, nay, which is not strongly against it.

Obferv. 2. The Pamphleteer imagines," that the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith in the Redemption by Chrift, as the fame hath been in all Ages holden by the Church, is not found"ed on the Sayings and Declarations of Chrift himfelf,nor is contain'd in thofe Writings which "do give the Hiftory of his Life and Miracles; "but is rather founded on the Sayings and occa"fional Writings of his Apoftles; who (he fays) "do fometimes ufe fuch ftrong and lofty Expref"fions, as when taken ftrictly and literally, do

exprefs much more than thofe Apoftles them"felves ever did intend:" And, therefore, this Free-Thinking Gentleman has thought fit to determine, that "the collecting together any "number of fuch lofty, figurative and borrow'd

Expreffions, as lye fcatter'd up and down "the New Teftament, are not to be brought in "Argument on this Head." That is, he wou'd have us reject and lay afide the other Scriptures, and confine ourselves to the Sayings and Declarations of Chrift himself, contained in the four Evangalifts; or, rather, to fome few fuch Sayings contain'd in the three former. For (for the fame Reason that he throws out of his true

Gospel of Chrift, the Writings of the other Apoftles)

Apostles) he muft alfo difmifs near the whole Gofpel by St. John, and alfo the far greater Part of the other Evangalifts; and, among the teft (as was observ'd above) the Parable on which himself has built his Doctrine of Simple Repentance; the fame being wholly made up of thofe very lofty, figurative, and borrow'd Expreffions, which he cannot allow to be brought in Argument on this Head. Into this narrow Compass has he at length contracted his true Gospel of Jefus Chrift! But,

I hope, Believers will not be fo eafily perfuaded to put out their own Eyes, to commit themselves to the Direction of these wild Guides; nor quit, or give up, this or that Portion of Scripture, to the petulant Demands of each confident Infidel, that fhall want to pare off fomething from the Word of God, difagreeing with his particular evil Scheme. For, all the Holy Scriptures are of one and the fame Divine Original, and Authority: And, all the Books of the New Teftament taken together, are, in Propriety, the true Gospel of Jefus Chrift. St. Paul calls his Preachings and Writings, feveral times, by the name of the Gospel,--and, (as he was made the PenMan and Promulger of it) by the name of his Gospel--the Subject of which [Gofpel] he tells us, in brief, was—the good Meffage of Justification by Faith, and of the Gift of the Spirit thro' Faith; or, in other Words, of Grace and Peace from God the Father, and from our

Lord

Lord Jefus Chrift, who gave himself, for our Sins, that he might deliver us from this preJent evil World: Anathematizing, at the

fame Time, all fuch as fhou'd Preach any other Gospel than that which he had Preached; but more particularly, all fuch as fhou'd Preach the pretended Gofpel of Juftification by Works: As he that runs may Read in his Epiftle to the Galatians, and in feveral other Places. Whether this Gentleman's Readers will be determin'd, what to admit for Gospel, by St. Paul's Account, or his, must be left to them to confider. And here,

To fay a Word of the Figurative Expreffions which he talks fo much of, we ought to be especially careful to retain and study the Language and Meaning of them; left we be carried to Cenfure, or Neglect them, like our forward Author, without knowing any thing about them. For, indeed, these Expreffions do, above any others, Demand our Attention; the fame being given in a peculiar Manner to affift our Underftandings, even by conveying to our Minds, from Emblematical and Sacramental Things and Actions obvious to our Senfes, Ideas of thofe divine and Spiritual Things which are not Objects of Sense; and which, by plain and literary Narrations or Descriptions, we cou'd not conceive: So that, to diveft ourselves of thefe, wou'd be to deprive ourselves of the Ufe and Benefit of what C

is