“Moreover, because the King changes not, whatever lengths the English go in immorality, he will always look upon them as his pleasant children, his dear people, and men after his own heart; and that, on the other hand, whatsoever lengths foreigners go in pious morality, his gracious Majesty is determined still to consider them as hypocrites, vessels of wrath, and cursed children, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever; because he always views them completely guilty, and absolutely condemned in a certain robe of unrighteousness, woven thousands of years ago by one of their ancestors. This dreadful[dreadful] sanbenito[[276]] His Majesty has thought fit to put upon them by imputation; and in it, it is his good pleasure that they should hang in adamantine chains, or burn in fire unquenchable.
“Finally, as foreigners are dangerous people, and may stir up His Majesty’s subjects to rebellion, the English are informed that if any one of them, were he to come over from Geneva itself, shall dare to insinuate that this most gracious gospel proclamation is not according to equity, morality, and godliness, the first Englishman that meets him shall have full leave to brand him as a papist, without judge or jury, in the forehead or on the back, as he thinks best; and that, till he is farther proceeded with according to the utmost severity of the law, the chosen nation shall be informed, in the Gospel Magazine, to beware of him as a man who ‘scatters firebrands, arrows, and deaths,’ and makes universal havoc of every article of this sweet gospel proclamation.
“Given at Geneva, and signed by four of His Majesty’s principal secretaries of state for the predestination department.
| “John Calvin. | The Author of ‘P. O.’[[277]] | |
| Dr. Crisp. | Rowland Hill.” |
To those not acquainted with the Calvinian controversy, this “illustration” may appear ungenerous and unfair; but in reality, the doctrines it burlesques had all been asserted by Calvinists, and the theological points involved in them had all been exposed and controverted by Fletcher, in his “Checks to Antinomianism.” No doubt the exposure was unpleasant, but the author of the Checks was not to be blamed for this. His work was done with an aching heart in the defence of truth and righteousness.
Fletcher’s twelfth Letter, addressed to Richard Hill alone, dwells altogether on the doctrine of Imputed Righteousness, which Fletcher describes as follows:—
“Consistent Calvinists believe that if a man is elected, God absolutely imputes to him Christ’s personal righteousness, i.e., the perfect obedience unto death which Christ performed upon earth. This is reckoned to him for obedience and righteousness, even while he is actually disobedient, and before he has a grain of inherent righteousness. They consider this imputation, as an unconditional and eternal act of grace, by which, not only a sinner’s past sins, but his crimes present and to come, be they more or be they less, be they small or be they great, are for ever and for ever covered. He is eternally justified from all things. And, therefore, under this imputation, he is perfectly righteous before God, even while he commits adultery or murder. Or, to use your own expression, whatever lengths he runs, whatever depths he falls into, ‘he always stands absolved, always complete in the everlasting righteousness of the Redeemer.’”
This, to many Calvinists of the present day, will seem to be an extravagant caricature of one of their favourite dogmas, but it must not be overlooked that a great part of Fletcher’s descriptive definition is actually taken from the published writings of Richard Hill. No wonder, therefore, that Fletcher, with stinging irony, proceeds to say:—
“In point of justification, it matters not how unrighteous a believer actually is in himself; because the robe of Christ’s personal righteousness, which, at his peril, he must not attempt to patch up with any personal righteousness of his own, is more than sufficient to adorn him from head to foot; and he must be sure to appear before God in no other. In this rich garment of finished salvation, the greatest apostates shine brighter than angels, though they are ‘in themselves black’ as the old murderer, and filthy as the brute that wallows in the mire. This ‘best robe,’ as it is called, is full-trimmed with such phylacteries as these,—‘Once in grace, always in grace;’ ‘Once justified, eternally justified;’ ‘Once washed, always fair, undefiled, and without spot.’ And so great are the privileges of those who have it on, that they can range through all the bogs of sin, wade through all the puddles of iniquity, and roll themselves in the thickest mire of wickedness, without contracting the least spot of guilt, or speck of defilement.”
Of course, Fletcher found no difficulty in demolishing such luscious and pernicious nonsense as this.