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CHAPTER VII.

Every grace a gift of God.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

God therefore, for his mercy's sake, vouchsafe to purify our minds, through faith in his son Jesus Christ, and to instil the heavenly drops of his grace into our hard stony hearts to supple the same.-2 Hom. on certain places of scripture, p.

229.

All spiritual gifts and graces come especially from God. Let us consider the truth of this matter, and hear what is testified, first, of the gift of faith, the first entry into the christian life, without the which, no man can please God. For St. Paul confesses it plainly to be God's gift; saying, Faith is the gift of God. It is verily God's work in us, the charity wherewith we love

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Since good volitions and good actions both spring from faith, it must be considered whence faith itself originates. Now, since the whole scripture proclaims it to be the gratuitous gift of God, it follows, that it is of mere grace when we, who are naturally and entirely prone to evil, begin to will any thing that is good. Therefore the Lord, when he mentions these two things in the conversion of his people, that he takes away from them a stony heart and gives them a heart of flesh, plainly shows, that what springs from ourselves must be removed in order that we may be converted to righteousness, and that what succeeds in its place proceeds

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CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

our brethren. If after our from himself.-Institut. l. 2. fall we repent, it is by him c. 3. s. 8.

that we repent, which reach

eth forth his merciful hand to

raise us up. If any will we have to rise, it is he that preventeth our will, and disposeth us thereto. If after contrition we feel our consciences at peace with God through remission of our sin, and so be reconciled again to his favour, and hope to be his children, and inheritors of everlasting life; who worketh these great miracles in us? our worthiness, our deservings and endeavours, our wits and virtue? Nay, verily, St. Paul will not suffer flesh and clay to presume to such arrogancy; and therefore saith, All is of God, who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ.-3 Rogation Hom. p. 297.

The bishop's opinion respecting faith is, that "it is the joint result of human exertion and divine grace." p. 54. In another place he speaks of baptism as "imparting the Holy Ghost to those who shall previously have repented and believed." p. 29. But what divine grace is exerted antecedently to any communication of the Holy Ghost?

CHAPTER VIII.

No Goodness without Regeneration.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Almighty God, we humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace preventing us, thou dost put into our minds good desires: so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect. Col. East. Day.

Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; keep us inwardly in our souls that we may be defended-from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul. Col. 2 Sun. in Lent.

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In this manner therefore the Lord both begins and completes the good work in us: that it may be owing to him that the will conceives a love for what is right, that it is inclined to desire, and is excited and impelled to endeavour to attain it; and then that the choice, desire, and endeavour do not fail, but proceed even to the completion of the effect; lastly, that a man proceeds with constancy in them, and perseveres even to the end.Institut. l. 2. c. 3. s. 9.

For it is very certain, that where the Grace of God reigns, there is such a promptitude of obedience. But whence does this arise but from the spirit of God, who, uniformly consistent with himself, cherishes and strengthens to a constancy of perseverance that disposition of obedience which he first originated?-Institut. l. 2. c. 3. s. 11.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Where the Holy Ghost worketh, there nothing is unpossible: as may further also appear by the inward regeneration and sanctification of mankind. When Christ said to Nicodemus, unless a man be born anew of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," he was greatly amazed in his mind, and began to reason with Christ, demanding how "a man might be born when hewas old.""Can he enter," saith he," into his mother's womb again, and so be born anew?" Behold a lively pattern of a fleshly and carnal man. He had little or no intelligence of the Holy Ghost, and therefore he goeth bluntly to work, and asketh how this. thing were possible to be true? Where as otherwise, if he had known the great power of the Holy Ghost in this behalf, that it is he which inwardly worketh the regeneration and new birth of mankind; he would never have marvelled at Christ's words, but would rather take occasion thereby to praise and glorify God.

The Father to create, the Son to redeem, the Holy Ghost to sanctify and rege

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But howdoes the Lord operate in good men to whom the question principally relates? When he exerts his kingdom within them, he by his spirit restrains their will, that it may not be hurried away by unsteady andviolent passions according to the propensity of nature: that it may be inclined to holiness and righteousness, he bends,composes, forms, and directs it according to the rule of his own righteousness: that it may not stagger or fall, he establishes and confirms it by the power of his spirit. For which reason Augustine says, "you will reply to me, then we are actuated, we do not act. Yes, you both act and are actuated; and you act well when you are actuated by that which is good. The Spirit of God who actuates you, assists those who act, and calls himself a helper, because you also perform something." In the first clause he inculcates that the agency of man is not destroyed by the influence of the spirit, because the will which is guided to aspire to what is good, belongs to his nature. But the inference which he im

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

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mediately subjoins, from the term help, that we also perform some things, we should not understand in such a sense, as though he attributed any thing to us independently: but in order to avoid encouraging us in indolence, he so reconciles the divine agency with ours, that to will is from nature, to will what is good is from grace.-Institut. l. 2. c. 5. s. 14.

nerate whereof the last, the more it is hid from our understanding, the more it ought to move all men to wonder at the fierce and mighty working of God's Holy Spirit, which is within us. For it is the Holy Ghost, and no other thing, that doth quicken the minds of men, stirring up good and holy motions in their hearts, which are agreeable to the will and commandment of God; such as otherwise of Let us hold this then as their own corrupt and per- an undoubted truth which verse nature they should ne- no opposition can ever shake, ver have. "That which is that the mind of man is so born of the flesh is flesh." completely alienated from As who should say, Man the righteousness of God, of his own nature is fleshly that it conceives, desires, and carnal, corrupt and and undertakes every thing naught, sinful and disobe- that is impious, perverse, dient to God, WITHOUT base, impure, and flagitious: ANY SPARK OF GOOD- that his heart is so thoroughNESS in him, without any ly infected by the poison of virtuous or godly motion, sin, that it cannot produce only given to evil thoughts any thing but what is corand wicked deeds. As for rupt: and that if at any the works of the spirit, time they do any thing apthe fruits of faith, cha-parently good, yet the mind ritable and godly motions; if he have any at all in him, they proceed only of the Holy Ghost, who is the only worker of our sanctification, and maketh us new c. 5. s. 19. men in Christ Jesus.

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always remains involved in hypocrisy and fallacious obliquity, and the heart enslaved by its inward perverseness.-Institut. 1. 2.

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