and corruption derived from the fall of Adam, as to be able of himself to acquire that true and lively faith which would secure his salvation, or to call upon God with that sincerity, fervour, and devotion, which can alone give efficacy to our prayers. The human mind is so weakened and vitiated by the sin of our first parents, that we cannot by our own natural strength prepare it, or put it into a proper state, for the reception of a saving faith, or for the performance of the spiritual worship required in the Gospel: this mental purification cannot be effected without divine assistance. The faith here spoken of, is not a bare belief in the divine mission of Christ; nor is it an instantaneous communication, a sudden acquisition. Deliberation and reflection are necessary, but not sufficient, to obtain it. It is the

joint

It ought however to be mentioned, that although Bishop Bull maintained" that our First Parents, besides the seeds of natural Virtue and Religion sown in their minds in their very creation, and besides the natural innocence. and rectitude wherein also they were created, were endowed with certain Gifts and Powers supernatural,' of which they were deprived in consequence of their eating the forbidden fruit, yet he admitted that the natural Powers of man were vitiated by the Fall: defectus illi omnes atque infirmitates, quæ prorsus necessario profluunt a vitioso humani corporis temperamento primum peccatum consecuto. App. ad Exam. Animad. 17. Sect. 13.

joint result of human exertion and divine grace. It is indeed the Gift of God, for, without God's assistance, no man can possess it; but it is a gift not bestowed arbitrarily, capriciously, or irrespectively. This is the true sense of the words of the Article; and we can by no means allow the inferences attempted to be drawn from them by modern Calvinistic writers, namely, that" of our own nature we are without any spark of goodness in us," and that man has no "ability or disposition whatever with respect either to faith or good works." Our Reformers were convinced that the Papists exalted the powers of the human mind too high; but, in framing this Article against that error, they were cautious not to fall into the opposite extreme, by denying to man all exercise of Free-will in the formation of religious principle, or in the discharge of religious duty (n). They were too well acquainted with Scripture, and entertained too just notions of the character of moral responsible beings, to intend any such degradation of human nature. that in the days of the Apostles men were required, when opportunity was offered them, to perform

We have seen,

(n) "Neither so preaching the Grace of God, that we take away thereby Free-will; nor on the other side, so extolling Free-will, that injury be done to the Grace of God." Necessary Erudition.

perform their part towards their conversion, and actually did perform it, although the perfecting of their faith to the purpose of salvation was unquestionably the work of the Spirit. Miracles were performed, to excite notice and belief at the first publication of the Gospel; and the Apostles appealed to the antient Scriptures, to shew that the prophecies relative to the Messiah were all accomplished in Jesus. Why were these miracles recorded by inspired writers, and these prophecies transmitted through so long a series of years, if men are not to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" those Holy Scriptures as the only ground of rational belief? Our Church ascribes the composition and preservation of these writings to divine interposition, and evidently considers them as calculated to instruct and improve, to induce men to embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. St. Paul, when any of his converts fell into errors either of doctrine or of practice, endeavoured to bring them back to the truth as it is in Jesus, by argument, and by referring them either to the written word of God, or to the instructions which they had received from himself. He did not tell them to consult their own internal feelings, whether they were in the way to heaven, but to compare their actions and opinions with the Gospel which he

had

had preached this was with him the only criterion of a saving faith. The corruption and impotence of human nature were the same eighteen hundred years ago, which they are now; and the Jews and Gentiles had far greater prejudices to contend with, than they have, who are born and educated in a Christian country; yet the first preachers of the Gospel addressed the understandings of their hearers (n), and enforced the necessity of a Redeemer,

(n) "In the first propagation of religion, God began with the understanding, and rational conviction won the heart. When the Holy Ghost fell on the disciples at the day of Pentecost, the devout men of every nation under heaven heard them speak in their own tongues. But what? Not the jargon of fanatic movements, but the wonderful works of God; that is, they heard them give a rational account of the various parts of God's religious dispensations to mankind. It was just the same on all other occasions; when the Spirit first fell upon believers, they prophesied, that is, they explained the Scriptures of the Prophets. But the dissension amongst the Corinthians sets this matter in the clearest light, and shews that the first effect of inspiration is to give understanding. Their understanding was so enlarged by all spiritual gifts, that the work not having been begun at the heart, they abused these advantages, to the violation of charity... On the whole, therefore, we conclude, that that wisdom which divests the Christian faith of its truth, and the test of this truth, reason, and resolves all into internal feelings, into mystic spiritualism, and ecstatic raptures, instead of giving it

the

Redeemer, by reasoning founded in the fallen and lost condition of man: they constantly set before them the folly and fatal consequences of voluntarily neglecting so great salvation, and animated them to a grateful sense of the divine goodness, by displaying the love of God in sending "his only-begotten Son into the world, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life (o)." If the Apostles, who wrote under the immediate direction of the Holy Spirit, knew that the irresistible influence of the same Spirit would ultimately and necessarily secure the salvation of the Christians to whom they wrote, why did they express so much anxiety, that their converts should walk worthy of their holy vocation, and that they should continue "steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (p)?" Is such earnestness in enforcing the duty and necessity of active exertion, consistent with that passive waiting for the impulses

the manly support of moral demonstration, that this, I say, can never be the wisdom which is from above, whose characteristic attribute is purity. Thus, on a fair trial, these illuminated Doctors have, at their very first entrance, excluded themselves from their high pretensions: principles like these always coming from spiritual impurity, and often leading, as we have seen, into the very sink of the carnal."-Warburton on Grace, book 2.c.7. (0) John, c. 3. v. 16. (p) 1 Cor. c. 15. v. 58.