ritorious. But we believe that poor Bajus, who is condemned under fearful anathemas, had "the secret of the Lord" with him, notwithstanding the Pope's bull of excommunication. With him, we hold that the so called "morally good" works of carnal men are and must be sinful; and for these

reasons:

Because God looks at the heart, and "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he." God always takes into view the motive in which an action originates, when he judges of its character. Now, as the motives of the carnal mind are necessarily selfish, every action proceeding from them must be corrupt, on the principle that "a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." We admit that actions "morally good" in common estimation may be performed by the natural man, but that such actions are good in the sight of God, or that they are not sinful, we believe to be unscriptural. “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight." Prov. xv. 8. The unregenerate man walks in his own counsel, and makes self his idol; now though he may do some actions which are apparently praiseworthy apart from the originating motive, he cannot in his unrenewed state do anything that is pleasing to God, because he seeks his own interest exclusively, and not the glory of God. Whether the Christian eats or drinks, or whatever he does, he does all to the glory of God. He walks by faith and not by sight. The unregenerate man walks by sight only; but "without faith it is impossible to please God." Prayer according to Romish doctrine is a meritorious work, and the mere utterance of certain petitions to the Virgin Mary, &c., is made to hide a multitude of sins; but miserably are those poor creatures deceived, who imagine that God hears with complacency the "vain repetitions,” which are the offspring either of superstition or slavish fear. So far from purchasing salvation in any measure or degree, they are an abomination in the sight of God.

Whilst we maintain that no man can perform an action that is really "morally good" without the aid of divine grace, and whilst we contend that every thing which is done by the unregenerate man is tainted with sin, and is therefore sinful, we must not be understood as saying, nor can we suffer the inference to be drawn from our premises, that it is wrong for an unconverted man to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, &c. &c., or perform any other so called "morally good" action. Far from it. But it is wrong for him to do these things from a selfish motive; and so long as the actuating principle is corrupt, he cannot please God by any thing that he does, however specious. Yet if all men will not be religious, would to God that they would all be moral!

I should be very loth to affirm, that the temperance move. ment among Romanists in Ireland and in this country has done no good. I bless God for every drunkard that has been reclaimed through its agency, and I rejoice that order and sobriety have, to so wide an extent, superseded confusion and intemperance. But as I believe that "a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit," I am confirmed in my suspicion that the glory of God has not been the motive in which this moral reformation has originated. Hence, until the true motive be revealed, I cannot call it absolutely good.

I do not wish to appear uncharitable, much less to be such, but I shall be most agreeably disappointed if a very short time will not suffice to convince many who differ from me now, that the Romish temperance movement is neither more nor less than a political manœuvre! A temperance medal will answer quite as good a purpose as a red cross on the shoulder, or any other mark by which the faithful have been designated in years gone by.

As to the condemned proposition of Quesnel, that "without the grace of him who makes free, the sinner is free only to commit sin," there is a sense in which I believe it can be successfully maintained. We all agree that the sinner is

the slave of sin, his understanding, his conscience, and, above all, his will, are under the bondage of Satan; how, then, can he be said strictly to be free? If he is led captive by the devil at his will, he is to all intents and purposes despoiled of his liberty, and free only to commit sin: this does not affect his accountability, because he has voluntarily chosen the yoke of Satan; he hugs his chains, and prefers the pleasures of sin and the service of the devil to the glorious liberty of the children of God. And until the grace of the Son, who maketh free indeed, changes the bent of his will, it is morally impossible that his spiritual fetters should be broken, and that he should follow holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. We disown the abstract proposition that any man is under any other necessity of sinning than that which his own imperious lusts and sinful passions impose upon him; and this necessity, so far from being an excuse, is the very thing which gives the killing emphasis to his guilt.

The necessity of grace in order to love God, to know the truth and to fulfil the law, is taught in the sixth and seventh sections. Man may learn natural truths without grace; he may arrive at the knowledge of the existence of God by his natural powers alone; thus Paul says the Gentile philosophers are inexcusable, "because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God."

"Yet man in this state cannot, without the special aid of grace, understand all natural truths collectively taken on account of the weakness of his understanding and various other hindrances.

"Man cannot understand by true and sufficient assent the supernatural truths of faith, without supernatural grace: the reason is, because these truths exceed the natural power of the human understanding; therefore there is need of aid exceeding nature in order to understand them by sufficient assent; and hence the apostle says, 1 Cor. xii. 3—' No one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Ghost."" The next paragraph justly affirms that any one may these supernatural truths, and afford a mere human assent

learn

of opinion, without grace, such as heretics bestow upon certain arguments accommodated to human understanding.

It is an article of faith that no man can obey any supernatural precept without grace. (No. 7.) Also, that the commands of God are possible.

"It has before been said, that certain precepts cannot be observed by the powers of nature alone, which yet may be fulfilled through grace; and thus it must simply be said that no precepts of God are impossible to be observed." (No. 8.) Grace is necessary to enable us to recover from sins, and to overcome temptations; but man in his lapsed state may overcome light temptations without grace, by the mere exercise of his will. His inability to overcome temptations of long standing, and then only by effort continued through a long period, &c., is to be ascribed not to any want of free will, but to its instability and weakness, and the difficulty of these things; and hence the inability is not physical, but moral. (No. 9.)

Grace is necessary to enable us to avoid mortal sins. A sinner may escape single but not all mortal sins in a long time. "The sin which is not quickly blotted out by penance, by its own weight draws down to another."

"Every one who sins mortally, is bound under pain of mortal sin to confess;" "because, otherwise, he exposes himself to the danger of falling into other mortal sins, &c." "But observe with Sylvius, that the danger is not so pressing with respect to a penitent sinner, although he may prepare himself for confession through one or two weeks, because he has in a certain way been already converted to God in so far as his desire is concerned."

A just man may avoid all and every mortal sin, even during the longest period, &c. (No. 10.)

"A man in a state of lapsed nature may avoid single venial sins by the ordinary assistance of grace; but yet, though he be a righteous man, he cannot avoid all for any considerable time, except by special privilege." (No. 11.)

"The principal efficient cause, as well of actual as habitual grace, is God alone.

"The secondary or instrumental efficient cause, are the human nature of Christ, and the sacraments of the church.

"The ministerial cause are angels and men: angels by supplying directions by which we may attain to grace; but men not only by praying and instructing, but also by administering the sacraments.

"The final cause is the glory of God and Christ, and our salvation.

"The meritorious cause is Christ, or the merits of Christ, that is in the state of fallen nature: for in this state no grace is given, except on account of the merits of Christ's passion; so that we neither have nor perform any thing conducing to our salvation, which does not proceed from the grace given by the merits of Christ.

"The prayers and merits of holy men may be a meritorious cause, but subordinate to the merits of Christ, because they are united to his: in this way a just man, by works done through grace, may worthily merit for himself an increase of grace, and properly (merit) primary grace for another.

"The grace of angels, and of the first man in a state of innocence, does not proceed from the merits of Christ; for Christ died only for the fallen human race." (No. 13.)

Το my mind there seems to be a palpable contradiction in the assertion, that the prayers and works of holy men may worthily merit grace. What is grace but undeserved favour? And how can this be merited? Surely there never was a bolder attempt to mar the grace of God, and make it of none effect, than this device of Satan to persuade men that they can by their prayers and works merit that, which from its very nature can be imparted only as a free gift. As for the general doctrine of merit, we shall have occasion to compare that with "the law and the testimony" in a subsequent chapter, and we therefore dismiss it for the present.