things," that he would "give unto us the increase of faith, hope and charity."

"The right faith," says St. Basil, " is not that which is forced by mathematical demonstration; but that which grows in the mind from the operation or energies of the Holy Spirit." ،، We must carry this yet further," says Bishop Burnet," than the bare believing that these things (the doctrines of Christianity) are true; such a faith devils have. We must make our people understand, that this faith purifies the heart, and works by love; and it only becomes a saving and justifying faith, when upon our entering on the practice of those rules that this religion prescribes, we feel a real virtue derived into us, that makes us new creatures, and gives us such a vital perception of the truth of the promises made us in it, that we receive these as earnests of our inheritance, and so taste and see that God is gracious to us. This makes us living stones in the spiritual building."

Bishop Pearson," who is in the highest esteem as a divine, and whose work on the creed is recommended by the House of Bishops to all students in divinity, says, "As the increase and perfection, so the original or initiation of faith, is from the Spirit of God, not only by an external proposal in the word, but by an internal illumination in the soul, by which we are inclined to the obedience of faith, in assenting to those truths which unto a natural and carnal man are foolishness. And thus we affirm not only the revelation of the will of God, but also the illumination of the soul of man, to be part of the office of the Spirit of God.”

"Illuminating grace," says Dr. Ridley, "consists not

c Collect for Whitsunday.

d Collect for 14th Sunday after Trinity.

e St. Basil on Psalm p. 195.

8 Bishop Pearson on the Creed.

.f Bishop Burnet's charge.

Article VIII.

in the assent we give to the history of the Gospel, as a narration of matters of fact, sufficiently supported by human evidence; for this may be purely the effect of our study and learning. This sort of faith is an acquisition of our own. But faith is the gift of God."

Dr. Barrow," Our reason is shut up and barred with various appetites, humours, and passions, against Gospel truths; nor can we admit them into our hearts, except God by his Spirit do set open our minds and work a free passage for them into us. It is he who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that must, as St. Paul speaketh, illustrate our hearts with the knowledge of these things. An unction from the Holy One, clearing our eyes, softening our hearts, healing our distempered faculties, must, as St. John informeth us, teach us this sort of truths. A hearty belief of these seemingly incredible propositions must indeed be, as St. Paul calleth it, the gift of God; such faith is not, as St. Basil saith, engendered by geometrical necessities, but by the effectual operations of the Holy Ghost. Flesh and blood will not reveal it to us, nor can any man with clear confidence say that Jesus is the Lord (the Messias, the infallible Prophet, the universal Lawgiver, the Son of the living God) but by the Holy Ghost."

Dr. Scott, celebrated for a book entitled "The Chris

tian Life," says, "Without the Holy Ghost we can do nothing. He is the author and finisher of our faith, who worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. Beside the external illuminations of the Holy Spirit, there is also an internal one, which consists in impressing that external light and evidence of Scripture upon our understandings, whereby we are able more clearly to apprehend, and more effectually to believe it.

"Justification may not be separated from good works. By faith we receive Christ such as he offers himself to us.

He however not only delivers us from sin and death, but also by the divine influence and power of the Holy Ghost, he begets us again, and forms our hearts to the love of innocence and purity, which we term pureness of life. Therefore justification, faith, and good works, are so connected with each other, that nothing may separate them. He therefore cannot be reckoned a true believer who does not avoid sin, and follow after righteousness, to the utmost of his power." Nowell's catechism. True faith then produces

WORKS.

"Albeit that good works which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; in so much that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree is discerned by the fruit."h

Thus, "instead of retarding our progress in piety, faith is the principal means of exciting us therein. There are no good works and merits by which we may procure the love and favour of God, and induce him to deal kindly with us. Yet those pious duties which spring from faith working by love are pleasing to God, not for their own merit, but because God graciously deigns to regard them. For although they flow from a divine principle, yet they never fail to contract a pollution from the intermixtion of our carnal affections. It does not follow that good works are of no importance, because they are inefficacious to justification. They conduce to the welfare of our neighbour and the glory of God. They become evidences of

Article XII.

God's loving kindness towards us, and on the other hand, of our faith in God, and our love for his name, and thus give us assurance of our salvation; and it is altogether proper that we, who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and loaded with innumerable mercies, should live conformably to the will of our Redeemer, never forgetting the obligations under which we are laid, of always studying to win others to him by our example. While any one considers these things with himself, he may well rejoice in his works of faith and labour of love." Nowell's catechism.

"The fruit receives its goodness from the tree," says the pious Bishop Horne," and not the tree from the fruit : which does not make the tree good, but shows it to be so, because men do not gather grapes of thorns. So works receive all their goodness from faith, not faith from works; which do not themselves justify, but show a prior justification of the soul, that produces them, as it is written, 'We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.'

Scarcely any subject has occasioned more disputes than the question relating to the power of man to work right. eousness; it being contended on the one hand, that to suppose man as not having this power, overthrows the idea of his free agency, and on the other, that not to suppose 'it were to undervalue the sovereignty of grace. And thus, by those who have carried their respective systems to the greatest lengths, it would seem, that either the power of man must supersede the grace of God, or else the grace of God must exclude the power of man. Contradictory as these two suppositions appear to be, St. Paul, who seems to have understood the matter as well as any modern commentator, joins them together, and calls upon Christians to work out their own salvation, for this very reason, that

it is God who worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The metaphors under which the affairs of our salvation are represented, are taken from objects which are familiar to our apprehension, and authorize us to prosecute the analogy which plainly seems to subsist between nature and grace. The word is called the seed, and the human heart the soil the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, appears to all, and deposits in every heart the seed of life. The instruments which convey this grace, like the husbandman who commits his seed to the field, can only plant. It is God alone who can give the increase. The dew of heavenly grace, the influences of the Holy Spirit, and the prolific beams of the sun of righteousness must refresh, invigorate, and mature, the celestial fruit. In vain man toils, unless the fostering breezes blow, the rain descend, and the reviving sun temper all into the perfect ear :-and yet these great agents would be ineffectual, unless laborious man did his part. The rain descends, the sun pours out his beams, in vain, unless the husbandman cultivate and stir the soil. So in the work of salvation, man has this seed, this talent, this grace, this manifestation of the Spirit, which is given to every man to profit withal. Herein man may be considered as having no moral power; he cannot change his heart, he cannot make the fruits of holiness to bud forth and blossom. But he has a natural power; his feet can carry him to the house of God; he can read, and meditate, and pray; he can in his way lie down at the pool of Siloam, and in due time, if he continue to wait upon God, he shall receive the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, which worketh all in all. In all the variety of sentiment entertained upon this subject, we cannot well err if, while we labour towards our salvation with as much diligence as