4. Danger in forming a plan of our own different from that of Scripture.

Surely we know not what we do, when we venture to make a scheme and system of our own respecting the revelations of GOD. His ways are so vast and mysterious, that there may be some great presumption in our taking one truth, and forming around it a scheme from notions of our own. It may not be the way to arrive at even that truth; and also it may counteract some others, which it is equally important that we should be impressed with. The very idea of forming such a scheme, arises from a want of a due sense of the depth and vastness of the Divine counsels, as if we could comprehend them. It is with states of society as with individuals; those whose thoughts and knowledge are most superficial, are most apt to systematize; and it is very little considered what awful things in the economy of God may be thus habitually kept out of sight,-kept out of sight, perhaps, by many quite unconsciously; for the secret influence of these opinions is more extensive than they are aware of, who are subject to them. It is not an uncommon thing to hear sermons which are throughout specious and plausible, which seem at first sight Scriptural, and are received as such without hesitation, and yet, on a little consideration, it will appear that they are but partial views of the truth, that they are quite inconsistent with the much forgotten doctrine of a future judgment. What effect, therefore, must this system have upon an age and whole nation?

Nor is it only in its not supporting the analogy of the faith, that this system is opposed to Scripture; but its spirit and mode of teaching is quite different. It may be observed in this, that this scheme puts knowledge first, and obedience afterwards: let this doctrine, they say, be received, and good works will necessarily follow. Holy Scripture throughout adopts the opposite course'.

1 One instance in Scripture has been applied otherwise, "Make the tree good and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt;" but this passage bears quite a different meaning; the obvious purport being, that hypocritical, bad actions, like those of the Pharisees, flowed from a bad principle

In many and extensive senses, the language it adopts, and the plan it pursues, is on the principle that "the law is the schoolmaster, to bring us to CHRIST;" "that he who will do the will shal know of the doctrine;" whereas this teaching is, "receive only this doctrine, and you will do the will." The kind of secondary way, and as it were in the back ground, in which the necessity of obedience is put in this system, is the very opposite to Scriptural teaching. Scripture ever introduces the warning clause, “If ye keep the commandments;" they, on the contrary, "If ye do not think of them too much."

And again, is there not an extraordinary confusion and perplexity raised, which has the effect of entangling men's minds with words and phrases? Are there not frequently logical fallacies, couched in verbal inaccuracies, which will appear, on a little consideration, to be mere confusions of expression, yet ever leave a false impression? Christian repentance is spoken of as something not only separate from, but opposed to CHRIST. The effect of Christian good works is treated as having a tendency to puff us up with pride and selfishness: works, that is, of humility and charity, exercised in secret, purely with the desire of pleasing GOD, for of course such only are good works which could be insisted on (though of course what they mean must be bad works, those of hypocrisy). Or again, that religious services weaken our dependence on the good SPIRIT; or, in other words, that frequent and constant prayers to God for His assistance, diminish our reliance on GOD. Or again, that the deep and awful sense of judgment to come derogates from CHRIST'S atonement, as if the most earnest consideration of the former did not most impress the unspeakable worth of the latter. Or again, that to insist on the value of the Sacraments, is to derogate from CHRIST; for when it is considered that there is no value whatever supposed in those

in the heart, that the whole heart needed to be amended. Is it not a very overstrained interpretation to apply this to the doctrine of the Atonement, on the supposition that the infinite and incomprehensible love of GOD manifested therein will, on being published, powerfully affect men's minds, and on being heard, regenerate their souls? Is there any sanction whatever for this in Holy Scripture?

Sacraments, excepting from CHRIST's presence in them, and His atoning Blood communicated through them, this is precisely the same as if the same charge were brought against attaching too high a value to the Holy Scriptures; for it might be said that we put the Scriptures in the place of CHRIST. It is very painful thus to be obliged to speak of these things. To answer them, we must come to plain first axioms in morals, such as the following,

5. Statement of the case from plain moral principles.

Religious doctrines and articles of faith can only be received according to certain dispositions of the heart; these dispositions can only be formed by a repetition of certain actions'. And therefore a certain course of action can alone dispose us to receive certain doctrines; and hence it is evident that these doctrines are in vain preached, unless these actions are at the same time practised and insisted on as most essential.

For instance, charitable works alone will make a man charitable, and the more any one does charitable works, the more charitable will he become; that is to say, the more will he love his neighbour and love God; for a charitable work is a work that proceeds from charity or the love of GOD, and which can only be done by the good SPIRIT of GOD: and the more he does these works

This is simply founded on the account which Bishop Butler gives of the formation of moral habits. See The Analogy. Of a state of moral discipline. It is, moreover, curious to observe how entirely Aristotle's system in this respect coincides with Holy Scripture, which makes our salvation to depend both on our mode of life, and also on our accepting certain articles of faith. For accord ing to Aristotle, the perception of any moral truth depends on the life which a person leads. He says, that it depends not on intellect itself, as in pure science; but that the understanding must have combined with it a certain desire, love, or motive (ὄρεξις or ἕνεκα τοῦ); but this desire or motive depends on the mode of life (noun) is), and is given by it. (B. vii.) In another place he says, that which is truly good does not appear but to him who leads a good life; and at another time, that a man must be brought up well to understand morals; and that the faculty of discerning truth, vice destroys. From which it would follow, that if any article of the Creed is less received than another, it is owing to some peculiarity in the life and conduct, either of an individual or an age, that rejects it.

therefore, the more will he love his neighbour and love GoD: and he who does not (in heart and intention at least) perform these works, will not be a charitable man, i. e. will not love God or his neighbour: and those are not charitable works which have not this effect; for no external act, such as the giving away of money, is necessarily a work of charity, but only such as consists in the exercise of the principle of charity. He therefore will, most of all, love God and love CHRIST, who does these works most; and he will most bring men to CHRIST, who most effectually, with God's blessing, induces them to do these works in the way that God hath required them to be done.

Or again, he only will be humble in heart who does humble actions; and no action is (morally speaking) an humble action but such as proceeds from the spirit of humility; and he who does humble actions most will be most humble; and he who is most humble will be most emptied of self-righteousness, and therefore will most of all value the Cross of CHRIST, being least of all sensible of his own good deeds: and the more he does these works, the more will the HOLY SPIRIT dwell with him, according to the promises of Scripture, and the more fully will he come to the knowledge of that mystery which is hid in CHRIST. That teacher, therefore, who will most induce men to do these works, will most of all bring men unto CHRIST, though he speaks not most fully and loudly of His ever blessed Atonement.

Or again, good works consist especially in Prayers. He who does most of these good works, i. e. he who prays most, seeks most of all for an assistance out of, and beyond himself, and therefore relies least of all on himself and most of all upon GOD; and the more he does these good works, the more does he rely upon God's good SPIRIT, for which he seeks. He, therefore, who, by preaching the judgment to come, or by recommending alms and fasting, or by impressing men with a sense of the shortness of life and the value of eternity, or by any such practical appeals which the occasion suggests, will lead men most to pray, will do most towards leading them to lean on GOD's good SPIRIT, although he may not repeat in express words the necessity of aid from that good SPIRIT, without whom we cannot please GOD.

To say, therefore, that such works, which alone are good works, tend to foster pride, and are a seeking for expiations beyond the one great Atonement, conveys a most dangerous fallacy; when the works which are intended, if the words can be applied to anything worthy of condemnation, must be bad works, those of ostentation, of hypocrisy, or superstition, and the like, which, of course, the oftener they are repeated, the more do they make men ostentatious, hypocritical, or superstitious; and so do take them from the Cross of CHRIST. They are sins against which we cannot warn men too much; sins repeatedly condemned by CHRIST, who never condemns or disparages good works, but insists upon them always and throughout most earnestly. Let hypocrisy, in all its shapes, be condemned as Scripture condemns, and we shall fully understand such teaching. Or again, consider the case morally with regard to the teaching of Repentance. For instance, take the deceivable sin of covetousness, of which we are all in danger. A covetous man is he who trusts in riches; and so far as any one trusts in riches, in that degree he cannot trust in GoD, and therefore can have no saving sense of the atonement of CHRIST, or dependence on the good SPIRIT of GOD. And if his feelings are excited on the subject of these doctrines, while he is under the influence of this vice, it cannot be anything better than a mere delusion of the fancy; and therefore that teacher who will most of all lead men to abandon and get rid of covetousness, will render their minds most open to receive these two great doctrines of the Gospel; as seen in the case of Zaccheus, when salvation came to his house as a true child of faith; and in our LORD's advice to all to sell, and give alms. The same inference may be drawn with regard to the love of praise, in which case it may likewise be shown that it follows as a plain moral consequence, what our Lord has declared, that they cannot "believe who receive honour one of another." So also with respect to impurity of heart; for a man of impure heart may be very sensibly affected by these touching and vital doctrines of the Gospel; and yet it is certain that he cannot receive them rightly; for the pure in heart alone can see GOD; and therefore can alone see, so as rightly to understand, those doctrines in which God is manifested.