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"Adeò ftat et permanet invicta fententia, omnia neceffitate fieri. Nec eft hic ulla obfcuritas, aut ambiguitas. In Efaiâ dicit [Deus], confilium meum ftabit, et voluntas mea fiet. Quis enim puer non intelligit quid velipt hæc vocabula, confilium, voluntas, fiet, ftabit?" Luther, de Servo Arbitrio, fect. 19.

"Quæ nobis videtur contingentia, fecretum Dei impulfum fuiffe agnofcet fides." Calvin, Inftitut. 1. 1. c. 16.

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Quid igitur, inquies, nullane eft in rebus, ut iftorum vocabulo utar, contingentia? Nihil cafus? Nihil fortuna?-Omnia neceffariò evenire Scripturæ docent." Melanthon, Loc. Com. P. 10. Edit. Argentor. 1523.

There is not a fly, but has had infinite wifdom concerned, not only in its structure, but in its deftination." Dr. Young's Cent. not fab. Letter II.

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YES

VESTERDAY's poft brought me a packet from London, including, among other papers, a fmall tract, recently published by Mr. John Wesley, entitled, "Thoughts upon Neceffity." I had no fooner perused thofe "Thoughts," than I refolved to bring them to the teft: and am now fetting about it.

During fome years paft, I have, for the most part, ftood patiently on the defenfive, againft this gentleman. It is high time, that I take my turn to invade; and carry the arms of truth into the enemy's own territory.

Mr. Wefley's tract, above-mentioned, was fent to me, by a well-known, and very deferving, London clergyman. So much of whofe letter, as relates to the faid tract, fhall, for the amufement of my readers, be fubmitted to their view.

"I went, laft night, to the * Foundery; expecting to hear Pope John: but was difappointed. After hearing a Welthman, for an hour and twenty minutes, on Pfalm lxxxiv. 11, preach up all the herefies of the place; a man, who fat in the pulpit, told him to give over;' for he feemed to bid fair for another half hour, at leaft. But he came to a conclufion, as defired. Then this man, who feemed a local preacher, ftood up, with a pamphlet in his hand, and addreffed the auditory in the following

manner:

"I am defired, to publish a pamphlet upon Neceffity and Free-will: the beft extant, that I know of,

Mr. Wefley's principal meeting-hcufe in London.

*

in the English tongue; by Mr. John Wefley, price three-pence. I had purpofed to have faid a good deal upon it but the time is elapfed. But, in this three-penny pamphlet, you have all the difputes that have been bandied about fo lately. And you will get your minds more established, by this threepenny pamphlet, than by reading all the books that have been written for and againft. It is to be had, at both doors, as you go out.

"I beg leave" (adds my reverend friend), “to tranfmit you this here faid fame three-penny wonder."

Upon the whole, this must have been a droll fort of mountebank fcene. Attended, however, with one moft melancholy and deplorable circumftance, arifing from the unreafonable and unfeafonable prolixity of the long-winded holderforth: which cruelly, injudicioufly, and defpitefully, prevented poor Zany from puffing off, with the amplitude he fully intended, the multiplex virtues of the doctor's three-penny free-will powder.

Never do that by delegation, fays an old proverb, which you can, as well do in propria perfond. Had Doctor John himfelf got upon the ftage, and fung,

"Come, buy my fine powders, come buy dem of me; "Hare be de beft powders dat ever you fee:" Who knows, but the three-penny dofes might have gone off, "at both doors," as rapidly as peas from a pop-gun?

My bufinefs, for a few fpare hours, shall be, to amufe myself, by analyfing this redoubtable powder. The chemical refolution of fo ineftimable a fpecific into its component parts (a fpecific,

The like whereto was never feen,
"Nor will again, while grafs is green,")

Query. Does the faid lay preacher, whoever he may be, know aught of any other tongue ?

may,

may, moreover, be of very great and fignal ufe. It were pity, that the materia medica, of which it is made up, fhould remain a fecret. Efpecially, as the good doctor defigned it for general benefit. To make which benefit as univerfal as I can, I do hereby give notice, unto all philofophers, divines, and others, who have poifoned their intrails, by unwarily taking too deep a draught of Neceffity: that they may, at any time, by help of the following decompofition, have it in their power to mix up, for their own immediate recovery, a competent quantum of the famous Moorfields powder: whofe chief ingredients are,

An equal portion of grofs Heathenifm, Pelagianifm, Mahometifm, Popery, Manichæifm, Ranterism, and Antinomianifin; culled, dried, and pulverized, fecundum artem: and, above all, mingled, with as much palpable Atheism as you can poffibly fcrape together from every quarter.

Hæ tibi erunt artes. Follow the above prescription, to your life's end, and you will find it a moft pleafant, fpeedy, and infallible antidote against every fpecies and effect of the baneful neceffitarian nighthade. It is the felix malum,

·Quo non prefentius ullum

(Pocula fi quando fæva infecere novercæ, Mifcueruntque herbas, et non innoxia verba) Auxilium venet, ac membris agit atra Venena *.

But though Mr. John Wefley is the vender, and the oftenfible proprietor, of this efficacious threepenny medicine; the original difcovery of the noftrum is by no means his own. He appears to have pilferred the fubftance, both of his arcana medendi, and of his cavils against the true philofophy of colours, from the refuted lucubrations with which a certain North-British profeffor hath edified and en

* Georgic. 1. 2. 127.

B 3

riched

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