tion. It is quite evident that these Sentences are intended to proclaim God's forgiveness of sin, as a fit introduction to the Confession. They are a sort of gospel herald, inviting all who hear to come to Christ. Now is faith mentioned as the mean by which pardon and acceptance after sinning may be obtained? by a singular chance (so to speak) it is not mentioned in any one of them; most singular and observable indeed, considering the Sentences are the selection of the Reformers, who, if any men, were alive to the necessity of faith in order to justification. Nothing can show more clearly that, while they considered it the only instrument of justification, they considered also that good works (of whatever kind) were in fact the coming to God, and the concrete presence of faith. Certainly, the view of religion popular in this day would have confined itself to such texts as · are most impressively cited in the Communion Service,1 instead of putting forth the profitableness of "turning away from the wickedness we have committed," of " acknowledging our transgressions," and of "a broken spirit." Contrition, confession, humiliation, deprecation, repentance, and amendment, are separately urged upon us; faith is omitted, not as unnecessary, but as being implied in all of these.

In like manner in the Exhortation we are enjoined to confess our sins "with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart, to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same." Why are we not told to " come in faith, and to apprehend and appropriate

the free gift?"

Again, in the Collect for Ash Wednesday, we pray God to "create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness." Are not renewal, contrition, and confession, here represented as the immediate causes or instruments, on our part, of justification?

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So again, in the Visitation of the Sick, the directions given to the sick person in order to the forgiveness of his sins, are accusing and condemning himself of his own faults," "believing the Articles of our Faith," "repenting of his sins," "being in charity

1 John iii. 16, etc.

with all the world," "forgiving all persons that have offended him," "asking forgiveness, if he have offended any other," "making amends for injuries and wrongs," and, if of ability, "being liberal to the poor." Faith as an act apprehending and appropriating Christ is not once mentioned, or the notice of it even approached.

Lastly, in the Commination Service, recovery of the state of justification is promised to us who "return to our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart, bewailing and lamenting our sinful life, acknowledging and confessing our offences, and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of penance;" "if with a perfect and true heart we return to Him;" "if we come unto Him with faithful repentance, if we submit ourselves unto Him, and from henceforth walk in His ways; if we will take His easy yoke and light burden upon us, to follow Him in lowliness,. patience, and charity, and be ordered by the governances of His Holy Spirit, seeking always His glory and serving Him duly in our vocation with thanksgiving; this if we do, Christ will deliver us from the curse of the Law." How different from the popular Protestant doctrine, which says, "If you have sinned, go to Christ in faith, look upon Him who has borne the sins of the world, cast your burden upon Him, apprehend Him, apply His merits to your soul, believe you are justified, and you are justified, without anything else on your part."

Τ

LECTURE XIII.

ON PREACHING THE GOSPEL.

IT may be asked, What was the fault of the Jews in

their use of their Law, which led them to reject Christ when He came? That Law was from God; they honoured it as such; they were told to adhere to it, and they did adhere; they thanked God for it; they thanked God for the power of obeying it; they thanked God for the electing grace which had given them in it a pledge of His favour above the rest of mankind. All this surely, it may be said, was right and praiseworthy; it was proceeding in the way of God's commandments, and seemed to promise, that when His perfect truth was revealed, it would be obeyed as dutifully as that portion of it which had already been given. This might have been expected; yet when Christ came, He was rejected.

We all know how to answer this question, viz. by explaining that the Jews considered their Law, not imperfect, as it was, but perfect; not as a means, but as the end. They rested in it, and though they nominally expected a Messiah, they did not in their thoughts place Him above the Law, or consider Him the Lord of the Law, but made their Law everything, and "the Desire of all nations" nothing. He was the true mode of approaching God, the sole Justifier of the soul; they considered their Law to be such. And so, in the words

of the Apostle, "they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God." They imagined that they could be both justified and sanctified by the Law, whereas Christ was the end of the Law both for holiness and acceptance. Now it is a very common charge against the Ancient and Catholic view of the Gospel, that it throws us back into a Jewish state, and subjects us to the dominion of the Law. On the other hand, from various remarks made in the course of these Lectures, it may be seen that that modern system, whose very life and breath (as I may say) consist in the maintenance of this charge, is itself not altogether free from the error which it denounces. Rather, as I would maintain, it is deeply imbued with it, having fallen, after the usual manner of self-appointed champions and reformers, into the evil which it professed to remedy. This, then, shall be our subject in this concluding Lecture, in which I shall suggest some remarks on the imputation of legalism, as it is called, wrongly urged against Catholic Truth, rightly urged against Protestant error;—not that I propose to enter upon a formal discussion of it, which would carry us far away from our main subject.

2.

1. It may be objected, then, that, as Judaism interposed the Mosaic Law between the soul and Christ, turning a means into an end, a resting-place into an abode, so the Christian Church, Ancient and Catholic, also obscures the sight and true worship of Him, and

that, by insisting on Creeds, on Rites, and on Works ;that by its Creeds it leads to Bigotry, by its Rites to Formality, and by its doctrine concerning Works to Selfrighteousness. Such is the charge.

Now here I most fully grant that those who in their thoughts substitute a Creed, or a Ritual, or external obedience, for Christ, do resemble the Jews. Nay, I do not care to deny (what, however, I leave it for others to prove), that there are, and have been, Catholic Christians open to the charge of forgetting the "One Thing needful," in their over-anxiety about correct faith, ceremonial observances, or acts of charity and piety. But I will say this that, on the face of the case, such an error is a great inconsistency; and no system can be made answerable for consequences which flow from a neglect of its own provisions. When, for instance, the Church bids us be accurate in what we hold concerning the Person of Christ, she is thereby declaring that Christ is the Object of our worship; when she bids us frequent His House, she implies that He is in it; when she says, good works are acceptable, she means acceptable to Him. The Church has never laid it down that we are justified by Orthodoxy only, or by Baptism only, or by Works only; much less by some certain spiritual feelings or experiences; and less still has she decided that to believe this was the one fundamental truth of religion. And if this be turned into a charge against her, that whereas there is One only Saviour Invisible, she has made the visible instruments and means of approaching Him many, and so by their very multiplicity has hidden Him, I reply, that if this were a fair argument, it ought