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attention of the public. These began in 1732. In 1812, they had thirty-three settlements in heathen nations one hundred and thirty-seven missionaries were employed in them: they had baptized twenty-seven thousand four hundred converts: and such had been their care in admitting them to that sacred rite, and such their assiduity in cultivating a spirit of religion among them, that scarcely an individual had been known to relapse into paganism. All travellers who have visited their settlements, speak with wonder and praise of the humility, the patient endurance of privation and hardship, the affectionate zeal, the mild and persevering exertions of the missionaries; and the innocence, industry, and piety of the converts :-the European, the American, the African, and the Asiatic traveller, speak of them in the same terms: and, that they speak without exaggeration, the conduct both of the pastor and the flock, in the different settlements of the united brethren in England, incontestibly proves. Whatever he may think of their religious tenets, Talis cum sis, utinam noster esses, must be the exclamation of every christian, who considers their lives *.

Those who desire further knowledge of this amiable and worthy denomination of christians, will find it in David Crantz's Ancient and Modern History of the Brethren, printed at Barby, 1771, and the two Continuations of it, Barby, 1791, and 1804. The History has been translated into English, and is become exceedingly scarce: the Continuations have not been translated. Mr. La Trobe, the pastor of the united brethren in London, has published a Concise Historical Account of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren adhering to the Confession of Augsburgh.

LXXIV. 4.

The Difference between the Roman-catholic Church and the Lutherans and Methodists, on the subject of Justification.

WITH a short statement of this difference, we shall close this chapter.

"The justification of the sinner," to use Luther's own language, "was the principle and source "from which all his doctrine flowed." So great, in his opinion, was the importance of this article of christian faith, that he thought himself warranted in asserting, that, "while the doctrine upon it was 66 pure, there would be no reason to fear either "schism or division; but that, if the true doctrine "of justification were altered, it would be impossi"ble to oppose error, or to stop the progress of "fanaticism." It is far from the object of these pages to enter into any thing like controversial discussion; but the writer thinks his readers will not be displeased to find in this place, an accurate statement of the doctrines of the roman-catholie and lutheran churches upon this important tenet of their respective creeds. It is expressed with extreme accuracy, in the Letters of father Scheffmacker, a work highly celebrated on the continent t. The

* Luth. Op. ed. Jenæ, 1561, tom. vi. p. 13. Ibid. tom. iii. p. 189.

+ Lettres d'un Docteur Catholique à un Protestant, sur les principaux Points de Controverse. Rouen, 1769. Deuxième lettre, sur la justification.

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writer of these letters begins that, which relates to the point in question, by observing to his lutheran correspondent, "if there be a point, on which persons have disputed with warmth, and without sufficiently understanding one another, on either "side, it must be acknowledged, that the question "on the justification of a sinner, is a point of that "description.

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"You teach," he proceeds to observe, “ that the "sinner is solely justified by faith; that, after having offended God, and lost his grace, we obtain "the remission of our sins, and are restored to the "friendship of God, by means only of an act of "faith every other act of virtue, as acts of con"trition, good resolution, hope, charity, &c. having, as you pretend, no part in the sinner's justifica

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"Now, to form a just idea of the faith, which you maintain to be the only means of reconciling "us with God, it is to be remarked, that it is not "the faith, which is understood by that word, in "its common acceptation; that is to say, a gene"ral faith, by which we believe all that God has "revealed to us. You require, that it should be a "special faith, on the merits of Christ; and this "faith, as your doctors explain it, contains first, an "act of the understanding, by which we acknow"ledge that Jesus Christ has died for us; that "he has fully satisfied for our sins; and that he presents to us his merits, his satisfaction, and his "remission of our sins: and secondly, an act of the will, by which we accept all this, in applying and

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appropriating to ourselves what is offered to us, "by Jesus Christ,-I mean his merits and the re"mission of our sins.

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"It is, however, necessary, that we do you the 'justice to acknowledge, that you require justifying faith to be fruitful in good works; for you de "clare explicitly, that if faith be not accompanied by good works, it is not a true faith; that we "must be careful to avoid imagining, that justifying faith can subsist with a wish to persist in sin; "that those, who have not contrition, and are re"solved to continue to live in their disorders, have "not the faith which justifies and saves them. "Luther's expression is, 'faith and good works are inseparably connected; it is faith only which justifies, but justifying faith is never single, and "without good works."

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"We believe,-First, that faith, taken in the. "ordinary sense of that word, that is, for the vir"tue which makes us believe revealed truths, is.

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absolutely necessary for the justification of the "sinner. We are fully persuaded that no works "done before faith, or without faith, by the mere strength of free-will, or human reason, can have any part in the justification of the sinner.

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Secondly, We believe, that faith alone does "not suffice to justify the sinner; that, in addition "to it, there must be a sincere sorrow for sin, a "firm resolution not to relapse into it, a salutary "fear of the judgments of God, with a true confi"dence in the merits of Jesus Christ, and in the "Divine mercy.

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Thirdly, We believe, that though the sinner may obtain the grace of justification, in bringing "the dispositions which I have mentioned, still he "cannot merit them; so that he is justified, gra"tuitously, by the pure mercy of God, and solely, "in the view of the merits of Jesus Christ. I explain myself:-the sinner, after he has lost the

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grace of God, can do nothing, which is sufficiently "agreeable to God, to entitle him to be restored to "his friendship. All the good works which he "does, in such a state, are dead; and of too little "value to exact from the Divine Justice that the grace of reconciliation should be restored to him

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as the fruit of his works. When God justifies "us by restoring his friendship to us, it is not in consequence of the goodness of our works; it is solely in consequence of the infinite price of the passion and death of Jesus Christ; it is gratuit"ously; it is from the pure effect of his mercy, "that he applies to us the fruit of the merits and "the infinite satisfaction of his Son. It is true, that "God requires certain works, without which he "does not justify the sinner; and in consequence "of which, he does justify him: but he does not require them as meritorious works; he requires them as conditions, or as necessary dispositions, "without which, he does not receive the sinner "into favour, or admit him to participate in the "merits of Jesus Christ, as to their effects in the "remission of sins. According to the doctrine of "the council of Trent*, nothing that precedes * Sess, vi. c. 8,

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