"but dead, vain, and fruitlefs, before God;" that they are the mere 46 names and fhadows" of good works; and that in reality, when tried by the true ftandard, what under fuch circumftances," feemeth to be virtue, is vice." And every where, the homilies abound with language like this: "St. Paul in many places painteth us out in our colours, calling us the children of the wrath of God, when we be born: faying also that we cannot think a good thought of ourselves, much lefs can we fay well, or do well of ourselves P." "Man cannot make himfelf righteous by his own works, neither in part, nor in the whole 9." "If we have any will to rife (from fin) it is HE (God) that preventeth our will, and difpofeth us thereto"." "They that think they have done much of themselves towards repentance, are so much more the farther from God." "We must beware and take heed that we do in no wife think in our hearts, imagine, or believe, that we are able to repent aright, or to turn effectually unto the Lord, by our own might and ftrength. For this must be verified in all men, "Without me ye can do nothing." Again, "Of ourfelves we are not able fo much as to think a good thought." And in another place, "It is God that worketh in us both the will and the deed"."

So in refpect to our powers for acquiring all neceffary knowledge in Divine things. "No man," the church here fays to God, "can know thy pleafure, except thou giveft wifdom, and fendeft thy Holy Spirit from above." Again, fhe faith, with St. Chryfoftom, " Man's human and worldly wifdom or fcience, is not needful to the understanding of fcripture, but the revelation of the Holy Ghoft, who infpireth the true meaning into them, who with humility and diligence fearch for it." And again, after quoting feveral

(q) On Salvation, p. 15. (s) On Repentance, (v) Third on Rogation, p. 310.

(p) On the Mifery of Man, p. 8. (r) Third for Rogation Week, p. 309. p. 337. (t) Ibid. p. 341. (w) On the knowledge of Scrip. 2nd, p. 5.

precepts of God's word, fhe fays, "These fentences, good people, unto a natural man feem mere abfurdities, contrary to all reafon. For a natural man, as St. Paul faith, underftandeth not the things that belong to God, neither can he fo long as the old Adam dwelleth in him."

Dean Nowell denominates this part of our malady, "the most horrible blindness and impotence ;" and affirms exprefsly," that we cannot by any works or merits prevent God, and firft move him to be propitious to us'." The Augfburgh Confeffion fays, "Humana voluntas non habet vim fine Spiritu Sancto efficiendæ juftitiæ Dei seu juftitiæ fpiritualis quid animalis homo non percipit ea, quæ funt Spiritus Dei." And to finish with one evidence more on the point; the common belief of the leading Reformers in King Edward's time was, "that the Papistical doctrine of freewill was abominable in the fight of God, and to be abhorred by all Chriftian men:. that Adam by his fall loft from himself, and all his pofterity, all the freedom, choice, and power of man's will to do good:"... that in confequence, "All the will and imagination of man's heart is only to evil, and altogether fubject to fin and misery, and boud and captive to all manner of wickedness, so that it cannot once think a good thought, much less then do any good deed, as of his own work, pleafant and acceptable in the fight of God, until fuch time as the fame be regenerate by the Holy Ghoft, and prevented by the grace of God :— That without this his good Spirit, which doth work faith in us, all our doings be very fin and hypocrify in the fight of God, how gay and glorious foever they may appear in the fight of man: That the natural man is dead in Adam, and a child of wrath; and that as a dead man cannot work any thing towards his refurrection, or he that is not toward his creation, fo neither can the natural man toward his regeneration," this being "only the work of God."

(x) On certain places of Scripture, 2nd, 237. (y) Cat. p. 57, 113, (z) Art. 18. (a) See above, p. 59. Note m.

This then, upon the whole, is the manner in which the doctrine and effects of original fin are taught in the Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies, of the Church of England. To this extent is her meaning in thefe forms fixed and illuftrated, by the other public writings of her principal Reformers.

4. And now, whofe doctrines most resemble hers? Ours who speak strongly on the fubject; or theirs, who fo labour to lower and extenuate it? We appeal to every perfon of common fenfe and common integrity to fay.-Is it poffible for those Divines, who treat this doctrine in the manner which has been specified, to believe that they agree with the Church upon it?--On fome occafions they pretty nearly confefs that it is not. Bishop Burnet, for instance, admits, that the higher or Auguftinian explication of the 9th Article, `which differs from his own, "does certainly quadrate more entirely to the words of the article, and is known to have been the tenet of those who prepared the articles." "This," he fays, "thofe who oppofe it, do not deny "." And, “No doubt," adds Profeffor Hey," he would most fully agree with our church, who confidered the fall of Adam as the first beginning of our depravity." Nor will he "fay, that if any one thought that man cannot poffibly, in the strict fenfe, turn and prepare himfelf to faith, he would diffent from our article:" Both which opinions differ exceedingly from the interpretation which the Profeffor would eftablifh.

This difference is alfo obvious from the conceffions he would make, and the alterations he suggests, in the articles on this doctrine. And he "knows not," he also confeffes, "whether the expreffions on the prefent fubject" in our Homilies, are not fomewhat too strong for him, though they may be chiefly borrowed from Chryfoftom and Augustin f."

(b) Expo. Art. 9. p. 114, 116. P. 220. (e) Ibid. p. 189, 227, 256.

(c) Vol. iii. p. 219.
(f) Ibid. p. 375.

(d) Ibid.

And

Similar conceffions, in abundance, might be adduced from others of the most eminent of this clafs of teachers. that any of them thould attempt to maintain their agreement with the church, on this doctrine, is really aftonishing. For, let us only bring a few leading ideas of each into comparison, and fee how this coincidence will appear.

They then, it has been fhown, deny the corruption of our nature by the fall altogether; doubt whether our mental corruption is at all owing to Adam's tranfgreffions; or confine this corruption to fome of our fpecies: Our church, in terms the most exprefs and unequivocal, which the repeats and illuftrates beyond all poffible room for mistaking her, afferts, that "Original fin, is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam;" that "All men are conceived and born in fin;" that into this state " we were caft by breaking of God's commandment in our first parent Adam; and that we defcend froin him as corrupt branches from a corrupt ftock.The moft orthodox of thefe Divines confider this depravity of our nature as but partial; as consisting in defects and imperfections accompanied with much remaining good:-Our church teaches, that we are the farthest poffible gone from original righteoufnefs; that we have no health in us, no one part of our fortner purity and cleannefs; that of our own nature we are without any spark of goodnefs in us, without any virtuous or godly motion, and only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds.

In their judgment, the great evil of fin confifts in its effects on human fociety: Our church affirms, that it moft juftly provokes the wrath and indignation of God.-A common opinion with them is, that the effects of the first tranfgreffion upon Adam's pofterity are only temporal judgments, and a state of mortality: The church of England afferts, that in every child who is born into the world original fin deferveth God's wrath and damnation; that Adam after his fall was accurfed of his Maker, condemned by his

juft judgment to everlasting death; that he had nothing in himself but everlafting condemnation both of body and foul, and that his whole pofterity fuftain the self-fame fall and punishment.--According to their cafuiftry, God's most awful denunciations against fin may only imply fome fmall, indeterminate, and uncertain kind of punishment: Thefe denunciations they are always fhy of mentioning: And they even fay, "We are not called upon by our church to fubfcribe to the eternity of hell-torments, nor even to condemn those who affirm that all men will be finally faved:" Our church ufes, and conftantly repeats, in regard both to the intenfity and duration of this punishment, the very strongeft expreffions afforded in language: Such furely are thefe, to "perifh everlastingly ;" "to go into everlasting fire;""God's wrath and everlasting damnation;" "the bitter pains of eternal death;" "hell-fire;" "the most excruciating and eternal torments in unquenchable fire."

-How would thefe Gentlemen reprefent intenfe and never-ending mifery, if this language does not?

So in respect to the powers man naturally poffeffes for restoring himself to holinefs and the divine favour. They mightily extol his reafon as fufficient, without any fupernatural affiftance, to enter into the true meaning of God's word, and to attain all requifite knowledge in divine things: Our church teaches, that "unto a natural man, many of the precepts of God's word, feem mere abfurdities, contrary to all reafon ;" and that " a natural man understandeth not the things that belong to God, and that neither can he."-They teach, with almoft one voice, like the Papifts, the doctrine of freewill: Our Reformers fay, that the Papiftical doctrine of free will is abominable in the fight of God, and to be abhorred by all Chriftian men; and our church adds, that we have no will to good till we are prevented by the grace of Chrift.Their ideas are, that man's natural powers are only not quite fufficient for what Christianity re

(g) See above, p. 143–148.