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and for all his merciful providences towards them in this world;-but, above all, for the redemption of their souls by the death of his Son !-for the free forgiveness of their sins, for the gracious assistance of his Holy Spirit, and for conducting them safely, through all the snares and dangers the troubles and temptations of this world, to the secure possession of that glory and happiness which then they shall be partakers of, and for which they are bound to praise God through all eternity! This, this shall be the employment of the blessed spirits above, and these are the chief ingredients of their happiness, which the Scripture mentions; and if there were no other as there may be ten thousand more, for any thing I can tell,-yet generous and virtuous minds will easily understand how great a pleasure there is in the improvement of knowledge, and the exercise of love, and in a grateful and perpetual acknowledgment of the greatest benefits that creatures are capable of receiving."" Letters, vol. ii. pp. 176–178. And again, remarks the Archbishop

"Blessed God and Saviour of mankind! what shall we render to thee for such mighty love, for such inestimable benefits as thou hast purchased for us, and art ready to confer upon us? What shall we say to thee, oh! thou preserver and lover of souls,-who wast pleased to assume our mortal nature, on purpose to live amongst us for our instruction, and for our example, and to lay down thy life for the redemption of our souls, and for the expiation of our sins, and to take part of flesh and blood, that thou mightest shed it for our sakes! What affections should these thoughts raise in us! what vows and resolutions should they engage us in, of perpetual love, and gratitude, and obedience, to thee, the most gracious and most glorious Redeemer of mankind!'" Vol. ii. 187,

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After alluding to some of those sermons of Tillotson which relate to the conditional character of Gospel promises, as opposed to absolute and unconditional grants of grace and salvation, our author sums up certain other sermons on regeneration as follows:

"We have often lamented together, the injury to practical religion, which has arisen from treating this doctrine controversially; and the obscurity in which it has been involved, by a neglect of precision in

the expression of it. Even in these sermons, notwithstanding their general merit, we find this same want of precise definition and application, to which I adverted in a former letter, as tending generally to embarrass doctrinal discussions, and to create an appearance of opposition, where no real or essential difference exists; and I venture to make this remark upon them, merely to shew, that if so acute a reasoner can be made apparently to differ from himself, by applying the same phrase in different senses, a similar variation in the use of it by others, (each understanding it in his own sense only,) may produce an appearance of discrepancy in opinion, which a mutual explanation, or the substitution of another form of expression, would probably remove.

"In the opening sermon, regeneration is considered, not as the implantation of the principle of spiritual life, by the power of the Holy Ghost, but as the change of character consequent upon it. It is used synonymously with repentance, conversion, renovation, and sanctification; and is stated rather as a condition required, than as a privilege conferred, by the Gospel. Yet this change of character the preacher ascribes expressly to the operation of a Divine Power, of the same kind with that which created the world, and raised up Jesus Christ from the dead;' though he controverts the opinions (drawn from the metaphorical term regeneration,) of irresistible grace, instantaneous conversion, and the absolute passiveness of the creature in the process.

"Grace (he admits) may be, and sometimes is, but is not generally, irresistible; ' and though this grace is the foundation of all that is good in us, the different improvement of it occasions the difference of our attainments in grace and goodness;' -and the neglect or abuse of it may incur its final forfeiture.

"Under this latter view, the same term is used to express the Divine operation and agency, which had been before applied the spring and principle of conversion and to the effect; and regeneration is made sanctification, with which it had been rather loosely identified. I should not venture to notice an inaccuracy, in a writer so eminently above my criticism, but that I

think it confirms what I have elsewhere neration; and proves that much of the said, of the controversy on baptismal regejealousy entertained of this doctrine has of it, and an application of the same exarisen from a generality in the statement pression, to designate the spiritual princi

Ple, and its results. In either of these senses, as used in the passages I have noticed, and, indeed, throughout the sermons under this title, it can have no reference to the sacrament of baptism; but is

stated, on the contrary, as a subsequent and sensible, and, in some degree, a voluntary, change, the rectified will of the renewed creature, consenting to the Divine suggestions, and co-operating (if we may so speak) with the grace of God.

"In confirmation of this view, regeneration is explained, as strictly synonymous with sanctification, and descriptive, not

only of the original transformation, but of the perseverance and progress in holiness, which mark the character of the renewed Christian. The evidences and results of the principle of grace are identified with the principle itself; and, while this principle is maintained to be virtually the sole cause of regeneration and conversion, the saving change is not supposed to be accomplished, till it becomes manifest in its effects, and, after many struggles and conflicts with sin, the power of Divine grace is exhibited in a signal and effectual reformation. When this is done, and not before, the man is said to be regenerate. But while it was yet in progress, the new man was forming, and the work of regeneration was going on; and it was perhaps a very considerable time, from the first beginning of it, till it came to a fixed and settled state."" Letters, vol.ii. pp. 193-197.

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Whether or not these views of regeneration may have gained for Archbishop Tillotson with some persons the reputation of being a low divine, we cannot tell. We certainly think they entitle him to the appellation of a rational one. Nor can we imagine the possibility of so "acute a reasoner," so profound a moralist, and so truly Protestant a theologian as Tillotson, foregoing the advantages of some of the finest sermons ever written to illustrate the character of the Christian, in order to consult a fancied theological correctness which would restrict the term Regeneration to that divine rite which sacramentally exhibits it. This great Christian divine, (whom, however low or rational, we cannot help regarding, aswell as his illustrious contemporary Dr. Barrow, who was born the same year with him,as raised up by Divine Providence to bear

with a regulating weight on much that had gone wrong before in the machine of our national divinity,) is then vindicated as respects the doctrine before alluded to, of the Christian covenant, his definition of faith, his ideas of justification, and his terms and conditions of final salvation. And here we must say that our excellent letter-writer takes a wonderful deal of pains to prove, upon these celebrated worthies, the doctrine of a first and a final justification; one gratuitous, and the other conditional-a doctrine, which in their pages, read at large, and as a whole, in our humble apprehension, can never fairly be found. The same attempt had been before made upon the authors of the Homilies themselves, and, to our apprehension, with equally small success. Indeed it is admitted, in one of the subsequent letters, that our reformers used the terms justification and salvation indiscriminately. And it is also acknowledged that "the title of the Homily on Salvation has been very fairly adduced to prove the identity of initial with final justification in the judgment of our reformers." Surely then we are moving altogether a moot point, except the disadvantage we have always suggested as inhering in the contrary doctrine, when dogmatically held forth, and drawn out into all its consequences and appendages. And, after all, the main point, we must acknowledge, stands forth perfectly clear, that these great divines, and many others, did not scruple to represent both justification and salvation as conditional, and as suspended on the aggregate of our faith, repentance, and obedience; that is, on our general hearty reception of Christianity. We say many other divines besides these have done the same. Our letter-writer gives the following quotation to this effect

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Though," says Baxter, "he that doeth righteousness is righteous, and the Scripture throughout, and frequently, mentioneth an inherent and personal righteousness

necessary to salvation, yet this is no universal righteousness, nor such as will justify us according to the law of innocency or works; but is merely subordinate to the merit and efficacy of the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ, which only meriteth for us as a price; our faith being only the requisite (yet given) moral qualification, for the reception of the free gift of pardon, justification, and adoption, and hath not the least part of the office or honour of Christ. Yet are Christ's words true, that by men's works they shall be justified or condemned, and all men shall be judged according to their works: and James truly saith, that'

by works a man is justified, and not by faith only-not by works of perfectior, or of Moses's law, nor any that, as a price or commutation, do make the reward to be of debt, and not of grace ;-but, by a practical faith, or Christianity, such acts, as faith itself is, and prove our belief-such as Christ has promised justification and salvation to, -such as, by justifying belief to be sincere, do justify the person against the charge of infidelity, hypocrisy, impenitence, and ungodliness. Christianity is that faith, which Paul opposes to works."* Letters, vol. ii. pp. 216, 217.

It is not however the name of many, or of any, divines, which can of force compel us to alter the opinion we have formed, and already expressed, respecting the use of the term "conditions," at least as applied to good works: whilst we must allow, that as applied to faith, distinguished, not separated, from good works, it may seem very difficult not to regard the term "condition" as implied both by our own church and by the Scriptures at large. If faith be the appointed mean of justification, it is in that sense a condition and the use thus far

though we do not by any means recommend it is so far safe that no man is likely to claim salvation on the merit of his faith. But apply the expression to good works; and the self-justiciary has some ground, or at least some temptation, to say,

• Another, and we think a far more pointed passage from the same author will be found in his "Confession of Faith," p. 56. 4to. ed. 1655, where some thing occurs even like a first and final justification, but both conditional; not one gratuitous, the other conditional.

"I have performed the conditions ; therefore I claim my reward." Reduce good works back again to their the certain, infallible, and even nelegitimate and orthodox style, as cessary fruit of justifying faith; and then they cease to be a claim to salvation, whilst they become an excellent warrant for the expectation of it; or rather for the assurance that we are continuing in that state of justification, which we should never have entered at all but for a

faith necessarily producing these its legitimate fruits.

And here we maintain, that Tillotson and Barrow, with Clarke himself, and, we were going boldly to add, all other sound and wellgrounded divines, are mainly and substantially with us. They are with us in this most essential point, the pillar and ground of the whole doctrine in question,-namely, that justifying faith is always and necessarily productive of good works. This doctrine stands clearly and fully inscribed, and with very little variation or exception, in the pages of this whole class of divines. And what an infinity of time and trouble, of quibble and quotation, of puzzle and perversion, often with the best intentions, would be spared, if we could but once obtain an open concession, or rather a full conviction in the minds of all controvertists, of this plain truth, that “Faith justifies, and faith sanctifies;" or, as Hooker expresses it, "Righteousness imputed and imparted always go together;" or, in the plainest of all words, "Believe in Christ for salvation, and you will follow Christ in holiness of life." We have a multitude of quotations at hand from Tillotson, Barrow, and Clarke, to prove their clear and united testimony to the identity of justifying with sanctifying faith; and to the total impropriety, and even impossibility, of considering Christian faith otherwise than as a practical principle necessarily productive of correspondent good actions. Let one short passage from each suffice.

"Labour," says Tillotson, "to strengthen yourselves in this belief; because faith is the spring of all rational actions, and the root of all other graces and according to the strength and weakness of faith, your holiness, and obedience, and graces will flourish and decay." Tillotson, vol. iii. Sermon 170.

"You say," remarks Barrow, "where are such effects, where are such men? I ask them, where is faith? where are believers? Shew me the one, and I will shew you the other: if such effects do not appear, 'tis no argument that faith cannot produce them; but a sign that faith is wanting.... Infallibly the like effects will faith produce wherever it is found, in a degree proportionable to its sincerity and strength." Barrow, vol. ii. On Faith.

"As the shadow or image of a man," says Dr. S. Clarke, "is not the man himself; nor a dead corpse the person whose body only it is; and in all other cases, things are valued only by their power and efficacy, and are what they are, not by the mere denomination or external appearance, but by their real nature and inward virtues or qualities; so faith is not a bare empty assent to the truth of the Gospel, a means considered separate from its intended end: but it is such an effectual assent of the understanding as, by a regular operation,influences and determines the will; and thereby governs the life and actions: shewing forth itself in the fruits of true virtue*." Dr. S. Clarke. Vol. i. Belief necessary to Baptism.

"He who believes God aright, hears, sees, feels, as it were, his word to be true; both the promises and the threatenings, believing both, and acting upon both. Not that faith is, even in the truest Christians, equal to sight, in its sensible influence, but it is its nature to resemble sight. It is also opposed by much unbelief, and the natural perverseness of the heart. But its tendency is to realise things invisible, and to give them a present substance in the mind. This is that divine principle

These passages are to our minds at least as demonstrative of the orthodoxy of the great men who wrote them, on the subject of justifying faith, as those adduced by our author from their works on the "terms” of salvation. And we think they have the further effect of rendering it rather a superfluous task to prove upon their authors, the doctrineat best a very questionable doctrine-of a first and a final justification, the one by faith, the other by works; as if, according to a statement, if we recollect rightly, of Bishop Downham, it were not worth so much merely to justify and pardon the sinner, as it is afterwards to admit him to final glory; when the very same principle which is the mean of his first justification is clearly proved in the estimation of these divines amply sufficient to provide him at last with a meetness for his future inheritance.

To establish the orthodoxy of such men upon the great points of the all-sufficiency of Christ's merits for salvation, to the exclusion of all other grounds of dependence; together with the necessity and efficiency of the operations of the Holy Spirit, for the regeneration and sanctification, the support and consolation, of the sinner, were indeed only to quote page upon page from their valuable writings. And if this be proved most satisfactorily by our author in quotations even from Dr. Samuel Clarke-a much misunderstood, though in some respects doubtless a much mistaking,

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wrought by the Holy Ghost, which enables men to overcome the world, and by which men may live to God. For the faith so highly commended in this chapter does not mean a mere assent to revelation in general, with which so many content themselves. The faith here spoken of is wrought by the Spirit of God, unites a man to Jesus Christ, and makes him to act as a new creature." Mr. Jos. Milner's Sermons, vol. i. 1804, pp. 47,48.

This we think a sufficient proof how far rational divines of all persuasions meet on the ground of good sense.

divine-we should think quotations still less necessary from the others mentioned, or from Bishops Bradford and Beveridge, or from Dr. South: the last of whom, it is true, the letter dedicated to his merits seems, very roughly, almost wholly to discard from the lists of piety or edification. We cannot go to this length. We even think that Dr.South has feeling, though strangely overborne by an extravagant and most ungovernable wit; between which and his hatred for Puritans and Socinians, added to the still lingering scholastic orthodoxy, the armour he always buckles on for conflict, he must be allowed to exhibit a most grotesque appearance, semi-Calvinist and semi-Arminian, semi-boxer and semi-buffoon, but always eloquent, profound, moral, and bold for God and for truth.

We shall now take leave of these letters, by offering a few hints, on our own part, respecting these very divines and their writings; endeavouring to carry on the good intentions of our author by investigating further the real though hidden sources of prejudice conceived against their gigantic labours. Of the truly unexceptionable Beveridge, indeed, it were idle to say any thing. But as to others more particularly pointed at, if our letter-writer had carried out the inquiry to its extent, perhaps something in this very CONDITIONAL salvation itself might have been found essentially forbidding in the aspect of many otherwise edifying and most orthodox divines. It is in vain to reason upon first principles and first feelings in the human mind. And we believe if there is any one feeling or principle connate with the prime movements of the Holy Spirit in the heart, it is that of profound humility. Humility, according to its depth, abhors the very notion of a claim upon a Being whom it has infinitely offended, and most justly moved to wrath and indignation. It considers mercy as almost too great a boon; and if mercy, operating on pardon,

and justification, and sanctification, be indeed the "total sum" which in the first place either penitence asks or God offers, how can the pardoned and reconciled sinner stand to listen to nice and minute discrimination as to the conditions he may still have it in his power to offer, to win of God his future regard? He feels indeed, as Hooker beautifully says, a "dutiful necessity" for obeying one who has loved him even to death, and that even whilst yet a sinner; nay,he would feel himself, or any others, the worst of beings, who could dishonour the Holy Name, or violate the sacred covenant, of his infinitely gracious Saviour. But such a man desires his own unworthiness, his own weakness and unprofitableness, to stand clearly and prominently forward: and the slightest misconception or failure on that head is instinctively felt by the humble mind as mortal poison to its new tastes. It cannot indeed hear the point of duty pressed too earnestly: nay, it would be almost romantic in its aspirations to the very highest flights of Christian virtue. But all this is an act of free obedience to a most free command; or rather, a most disinterested return for the freest and most immeasurable benefits. The notion of barter is as strange to such a mind, 'as it would have been, shall we say to Joseph, after he had been raised by the generosity of Pharoah from a prison to be second in the kingdom? to have said how much of gratitude and how much of allegiance he would pay to his benefactor, for a still further enlargement of his favour. The notion of a sincere obedience, accepted instead of one that is perfect, seems to place the primary obligation to our Sovereign Redeemer at so low an estimate, as to excite absolute disgust in a mind thus affected. And the Christian, at once free and enlarged, will find something in the grandest moral speculations, however above the attainment of poor, frail, unassisted nature, that will be nevertheless

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