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Title
: A Letter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley relative to his pretended Abridgment
of Zanchius on Predestination
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Following
John Wesley's misattributed translation "The
Doctrine of Absolute Predestination stated and asserted, by The Reverend Mr
A_ T_" of "The
Doctrine of Absolute Predestination stated and asserted; with a preliminary
Discourse on the Divine Attributes; translated in great measure from the
Latin of Jerome Zanchius." Toplady
immediately published this stinging response, written on 26th March 1770.
The
advertisement for the second edition reads:
NINE
months are now elapsed since the first publication of this letter; in all
which time Mr. W. has neither apologized for the misdemeanor which occasioned
his hearing from me in this public manner, nor attempted answer the charges
entered against him. Judging, probably, that the former would be too
condescending in one who has erected himself into the leader of a sect, and
that the latter would prove rather too difficult a task, and involve him in a
subsequent train of fresh detections, he has prudently omitted both.
Some
of his followers, however, have not been so tamely inactive, on this
occasion, as their pastor. Anxious, at once, to palliate his offence and to
screen his timidity, several penny and two-penny defences have successively
appeared: wherein the anonymous scribblers wretchedly endeavored to gather
up, and put together, the fragments of a shattered reputation. The very
printers, the mid-wives who handed these "insects of a day" into
public existence, were ashamed to subjoin their names at the bottom of the
title pages.Two lay-preachers, in particular, have feebly taken up the
cudgels for their master. Of one I shall say very little, as he writes with
some degree of decency. Of the other I shall not say much; for both his
talents and his morals sink him far below the dignity of chastisement. This
illiterate "haberdasher of small wares" entitles his penny
effusion, as well as I remember, "A Letter of thanks to the Reverend Mr.
Toplady, in the Names of all the hardened Sinners in London and
Westminster." The poor creature, it is plain from his title-page, aims
at humour; and yet unhappily for such a design, he is in reality but too
literally qualified to act as secretary in chief to the sinners of London and
Westminster. For he has given very numerous and ample proofs of his own sinnership,
and that there can hardly exist, in those two cities, a more atrocious sinner
than himself. I will not pollute this paper with a recital of his crimes.
They who know the man are no strangers to his communication. Though a
doctrinal Pharisee, his life has, long ago, evinced him a practical Sadducee.
Surely, Arminianism is likely to flourish mainly under the auspices of such
able and virtuous advocates!
And
so much for Mr. Wesley's redoubtable subalterns.
What
image of their fury can we form?
Dullness and rage. A puddle in a storm.
If
my advice carries any weight with them, they will carefully peruse their
spelling-books before they make another sally from the press. As to
themselves and their refined productions, I mean to take no farther notice of
either. I am quite of Mr. Gay's opinion;
To
shoot at crows is powder thrown away.
I
had almost forgot the monthly reviewers. One word concerning them, and I have
done. The two reverend gentlemen who are hired to dissect and characterize
whatever comes within the divinity-department, a calendis ad calendas,
would fain have it, in their superficial strictures on the first edition of
this letter, than I am angry with Mr. Wesley. If, by anger, the ingenious
animadverters mean a just and becoming disapprobation of Mr. Wesley's lying
abridgment, and of the surreptitious manner in which he smuggled it into the
world, I acknowledge myself, in this respect, angry. I hope the reverend
reviewers will not, in their turn, be angry too, at seeing themselves tacked
to the list of Mr. Wesley's allies: since, in their mode of representing my
dispute (or, to adopt their own military term, my battle) with that
gentleman, they seem to rank themselves in the number of his seconds. The
reason is obvious. Mr. W. is a red-hot Arminian: and the sagacious doctors
can discern, with half an eye, that Arminianism lies within a bow-shot of
Socinianism and Deism. Yet, notwithstanding the alliance is thus not
altogether unnatural, why should these two divines, who are, certainly,
possessed of abilities which might do honour to human nature, by a narrow,
sordid attachment to party, render those abilities less respectable?
Broad
Hembury;
January, 9 1771.
This
work ends with the very reasonable request that:
Should
you take any notice of this letter, I have three requests to make; or rather,
there are three particulars on which I have a right to insist:
1.
Do not quote unfairly.
2.
Do not answer evasively.
3.
Do not print clandestinely.
Canvass
the points of doctrine wherein we differ, as strictly as you can. They will
stand the test. They scorn disguise. They disdain to sue for quarter. Truth,
like our first parents in the state of innocence, can shew herself naked,
without being either afraid or ashamed: and he that doth truth cometh to the
light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.
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Reformed Churchmen
We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879
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