ritual charge, that this word Justification signifieth remission of our sins, and our acceptation or reconciliation into the grace and favour of God; that is to say, our perfect renovation in Christ. Item, that Sinners attain this Justification by Contrition and Faith, joined with Charity. Not as though our Contrition and Faith, or any Works proceeding thereof, can worthily merit or deserve to attain the said Justification, for the only mercy and grace of the Father, promised freely unto us for his Son Jesus Christ's sake, and the merits of his blood and passion, be the only sufficient and worthy causes thereof. And yet that notwithstanding, to the attainment of the same Justification God requireth to be in us not only inward Contrition, perfect Faith and Charity, certain Hope and Confidence, with all other Spiritual Graces and Motions; which, as was said before, must necessarily concur in remission of our sins, that is to say, our Justification; but also he requireth and commandeth us, that after we be justified, we must also have good Works of Charity and Obedience toward God, in the observing and fulfilling outwardly of his Laws and Commandments. For although For although acceptation to everlasting life be conjoined with Justification, yet our good Works be necessarily required to the attaining of everlasting life,

and we, being justified, be necessarily bound, and it is our necessary duty, to do good Works; according to the saying of Saint Paul:-"We be bound not to live according to the flesh and to fleshy appetites" (Rom. viii, 13). And Christ saith," If you will come to Heaven, (enter into life,) keep the Commandments (Matthew xix. 17). Wherefore, all good Christian people must understand and believe certainly that God necessarily requireth of us to do good Works, commanded by him: and not only outward and civil Works, but also the inward Spiritual Motions and Graces of the Holy Ghost; that is to say, to dread and fear God; to love God; to have firm Trust and Confidence in God; to invocate and call upon God; to have patience in all adversities; to hate Sin, and to have a certain purpose and will not to sin again; and such other like Motions and Virtues. For Christ saith,-"We must not only do outward civil good Works; but we must also have these foresaid inward spiritual Motions, consenting and agreeable to the Laws of God."

SERMON XIII.

ON PRETENSIONS TO SUPERIOR PIETY AND KNOWLEDGE.

ECCLESIASTES VII. 16.

Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself over wise.

THERE is something very remarkable in this caution of the Preacher, and not less remarkable is the reason assigned for it:-"Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?" It seems,

indeed, by no means easy to discover the true sense of these words, thus connected with each other; and accordingly the expositions of them have been more numerous than satisfactory. The most prevailing opinion is that they refer to the danger which men of pre-eminent virtue and wisdom may incur by too rigid an exaction of justice, or too intemperate an opposition to the errors and prejudices of the vulgar. This opinion might, perhaps, be supported if there was no doubt about the meaning of the word which is here translated-" destroy thyself."

But not only is another word substituted for it in the margin of our Bibles, but in other versions, and those the most ancient, it is rendered by a word of a quite different sense; though, as it appears to me, by no means more applicable to the former part of the verse. Among our own Divines, one of the most celebrated considers this passage of Scripture as the objection of a worldly-minded person, who regards as an excess of duty every thing which may expose him to danger or inconvenience in his pursuit of sensual gratifications. But not to dwell on the enumeration of difficulties, which it is more easy to suggest than to remove; I prefer, as more simple and obvious, that interpretation of the words of the Text, which is given by a theological writer of the fourth Century, and who applies them to spiritual pride, to an affectation of extraordinary wisdom in the knowledge of our duty, and of extraordinary zeal and devotion in the practice of it.

Most assuredly it is "not good that the soul be without knowledge;"|| and to this maxim

*The Vulgate has "ne obstupescas," a literal translation from the Greek.

+ Dr. Hammond.

Gregory Nazianzen.

See Patrick's Commentary on Ecclesiastes.

|| Proverbs xix. 4.

of the Wise Man our contemporaries have not been inattentive. The Age in which we live has been called, by way of distinction, an Age of Reason. It is undoubtedly an Age fruitful in knowledge of various kinds, and boastful of diffusing that knowledge to an extent incalculably beyond that which former ages had, perhaps, ever ventured to contemplate. So far as the mere exercise of intellectual power has been called forth, its claims are not to be denied. It must be allowed that never before were such pains taken, and successfully taken, to give to persons, in every condition of life, a consciousness of something more than mere animal instincts, a lively perception of that native force of intellect, which is common to all our species, though not always known, or felt, even by those who are most amply endowed with it. That this sort of illumination is infinitely more extended than formerly cannot be disputed; and something it undoubtedly is to have given men a juster estimate of their natural powers; to have impressed them with notions or persuasions, which may render them more sensible of the true dignity of their nature, and of the place they occupy in the system of the Universe. But it is not enough to have shewn that they have powers and energies, of which they were before unconscious, unless they are instructed how to direct these