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CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

purify our minds, through faith in his son Jesus Christ, and to instill the heavenly drops of his grace into our hard stony hearts to supple the same.-2 Hom. on cer

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from faith, it must be con-. sidered whence faith itself originates. Now, since the whole scripture proclaims it to be the gratuitous gift of God, it follows, that it is

tain places of scripture, p. of mere grace when we, who

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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 our brethren. If after our fall we repent, it is by him that we repent, which reacheth forth his merciful hand to

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 pco-
ple, 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 re-
moved in order that we may
be converted to righteous-
ness, and that what
ceeds in its place proceeds
from himself.-Institut. 1.2.
c. 3. s. 8.

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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,

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CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

All is of God, who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ.-3 Rogation Hom. p. 297.

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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?

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 com. pletion 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.

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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

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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? Whereas 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 there

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But how does 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 and violent 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

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by to praise and glorify God. -The Father to create, the Son to redeem, the Holy Ghost to sanctify and regenerate: whereof the last, the more it is hid from

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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 their own corrupt and perverse nature they should never have. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." As who should say, Man of his own nature is fleshly and carnal, corrupt and naught, sinful and disobedient to God, WITHOUT ANY SPARK OF GOODNESS in him, without any virtuous or godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds. As for

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the will, which is guided to aspire to what is good, belongs to his nature. But the inference, which he immediately 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.

Let us hold this then as an undoubted truth which no opposition can ever shake, that the mind of man is so completely alienated from the righteousness of God, that it conceives, desires, and undertakes every thing that is impious, perverse, base, impure, and flagitious: that his heart is so thoroughly infected by the poison of sin, that it cannot produce any thing but what is corrupt: and that if at any

the works of the spirit, time they do any thing ap

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the fruits of faith,
ritable and godly motions;
if he have any at all in him,
they proceed only of the
Holy Ghost, who is the on-
ly worker of our sanctifica-
tion, and maketh us new
men in Christ Jesus.-Such
is the power of the Holy
Ghost to regenerate men,
and, as it were, to bring
them forth anew,
so that
they shall be nothing like the
men that they were before.
1 Hom. for Whit. p. 279, 280.

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parently good, yet the mind always remains involved in hypocrisy and fallacious obliquity, and the heart enslaved by its inward perverseness. -Institut. l. 2. c. 5. s. 19.

Dr. Tomline says, "We can by no means allow the inferences attempted to be drawn from them (that is from the words of the ninth article) 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.' If these inferences be really Calvinistic when drawn by modern writers, can they be anti-calvinistic when found in the Homilies of the Church ?-Here then we have what is equivalent, or perhaps superior, to an admission from his lordship himself, that in this instance at least the Homilies are in harmony with the Calvinists. To compliment his lordship as having displayed any polemical acuteness on this occasion, would violate the obligations of truth. What must we think of his professions of approbation of the homilies and articles, when the doctrine contained

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