may be increased a thousand fold, and that his immortal spirit may meet in glory many of the sons and daughters of Erin, brought to the Saviour by its means. And if the spirits of the just made perfect descend to take an interest in the proceedings of the church below, doubtless, the disembodied spirit of your departed secretary will hover around you on the present occasion, and during the solemnities of this week, to rejoice in the progress of this good cause, to witness the fruits of your beneficence and zeal, and to report in heaven the offerings of holy gratitude and love you will now pour into the treasury of the Lord. But why should I suggest such a thought, when we are sure of the presence of one Friend and Benefactor, who loved us even unto death, and yet ever liveth to carry on his cause, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; who still walks in the midst of his churches, holding the stars in his right hand, while he searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men, that he may give unto every one according to his works. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, “be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

102

THE DOCTRINE OF GOOD WORKS.

REV. H. BLUNT, A.M.

TRINITY CHURCH, SLOANE STREET, CHELSEA, JUNE 22, 1834.

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work." COLOSSIANS, i. 10.

Ir is a remarkable assertion of the Apostle to the Corinthians, but not more remarkable, obviously, than true, that "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." And who can doubt it? And without any reference to the obvious fact, that while the two former are transitory, the last is perpetual, is it not evident that, after all, faith and hope are but as the scaffolding to support the house, while the house itself, the glorious superstructure, is love-love to God, and love to man; love to every created being throughout all time, and love to the blessed inmates of the heavenly mansions throughout eternity. The object, then, of all religion is to give men the power and the will, which they have not by nature, to live that life of love on earth, that they may be fitted and educated for an eternity of love in heaven. Every thing connected with this high feeling, is comprised in Scripture in the expressive term "good works ;" and it is to this important subject, that the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth articles of our Church, will, this morning, direct our attention.

There are four great errors, continually springing up in the heart of man, with respect to this deeply interesting doctrine; these have been detected by our Church in the three articles to which I have referred; and which shall be taken together as the subject of our consideration. We shall briefly refer to these errors, that you may see with what peculiar propriety, and with what remarkable distinctness and precision, our Church applies itself to the task of preserving her members from their danger.

The first of these errors, namely, that a man can be justified before God for his works' sake, was sufficiently considered under the eleventh article; and therefore will not require our attention at present.

The second of these is, that all works of honesty, and charity, and uprightness, must be so pleasing in the sight of God, that let them be performed by whom they may, they cannot fail to call down on the performer the love, the mercy, or the grace of God: that, in fact, they at least render men competent to receive this favour, even if they do not actually purchase it. Against this error-the error indeed expressly of the Pelagians, but not less the error of the natural and unconverted heart-the thirteenth article protests against in the following decisive manner: "Of works before Justification.”

-You will observe our Church takes especial care not to recognise them as good works, although she is evidently referring to those which are called so in the world she contents herself with calling them "Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not from faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school-authors say) deserve grace of congruity; yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but that they have the nature of sin."

There are few articles of the Church which are more staggering to the heart of the natural man than this, and yet few that more immediately have approved themselves to the hearts of the converted people of God. It simply asserts, that no works perform before justification—that is, before we have been led to close with the offer of a crucified Redeemer, and have thus been accounted righteous through his merits-are pleasant to God. But consider only for a inoment, the declaration of the articles which precede this, and you will see it is impossible to come to any other conclusion. For instance, the ninth article has declared, that we are all "far gone from original righteousness," that "the flesh is always lusting against the spirit, and deserving God's wrath and damnation." The tenth article has shown, that from this condition man cannot turn himself without the grace of God, and, therefore, "has no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God." It is, then, the following consequence of these great, and solemn, and humiliating truths, that every work done before the grace of God, must be unpleasant to God, and even—as a clause of the article strongly, but not more strongly than scripturally, asserts -"must have the nature of sin." We say, not more strongly than scripturally; for the Apostle to the Romans has asserted the same thing, almost in the same words, when he says, "Whatsoever"-making no distinction for works of amiability or kindness—“ Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

This is a portion of the subject which is a stumbling-block to many. The feelings of their minds with respect to it-and they may be the feelings of the minds of many among yourselves-are of this nature "Can it be possible that all the amiable, honest, just, and honourable actions of a man's life, before he has received the grace of Christ, can possess the nature of sin, in the sight of our merciful Father? Is he so severe a judge, that he will not look with an eye of satisfaction on those many virtuous beings, virtuous men, who gladden the countenances, and cheer the souls, of all around them, and make the widow's heart to sing for joy?" This is, perhaps, stating the objection as fairly and as strongly as it can be stated: and yet we doubt not that a very little consideration will induce you to agree with the justice of the verdict which our Church pronounces in such a case as this, when it pronounces that "they have the nature of sin."

You will then observe, from the words before us, that the Church gives the reason for her decision, which is too frequently overlooked: she says, that these works have the nature of sin simply because "they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done." God has commanded, not that they shall be left undone, but that they shall be done from love to his name; that they shall be the fruits of a true and living faith. If then they are performed, but performed from any other motive, (for it is unnecessary to refer to their

inherent imperfections and corruptions) but if they are performed from any other motive than God has commanded, it is clear that, as regards God and the actor of those works, they have the nature of sin; they are the breach of a command, instead of the fulfilment of one; and, however estimable in the sight of our fellow-men, cannot be pleasant to Him to whose will they are opposed. For instance, if we are, careful to obtain the praise of men, if we are benevolent to gratify the feelings of the heart, or the desires of ambition-if we are liberal because it flatters our vanity-if we are just because it satisfies our high-mindedness-if we are kind and condescending because it ministers to our pride, or even the kindly feelings of our heart; can we affect surprise, that, however pleasing to God the feelings, taken abstractedly, they have the nature of sin when taken with reference to the actor, and are really sinful as regards his motives, his principles, his objects?

You There is an incident in ancient history that may illustrate this. recollect in Roman story, that at a time when the discipline of the army peculiarly required the most entire and positive obedience to the orders of the commander, that commander forbade that any individual should leave the ranks on any pretence, under pain of immediate death. The order was, as you well remember, violated by his own son, who indignant at the insults, and menaces, and scorn of some champion of the enemy, spurred forth to meet him, and having slain him in single combat, brought back the trophies to his father's feet. I need not remind you, that the conqueror was ordered to immediate execution. The act of heroism, which if performed in obedience to his commander would have deserved and received a crown, performed as it was in opposition to the command, conducted its executor, with perfect justice, to the scaffold. We are not defending the humanity of the act, but its justice, which is the only part that touches our argument. It was just that Manlius should order his son to execution; it is just that God should visit with displeasure, and treat as sins, those acts, which however grateful to the natural feelings are destitute of all that can be of value in his eyes, because they are done with no single reference to himself, because they are performed neither in desire obedience to his will, nor in love and honour to his name, nor with any after his glory.

The third error into which men have fallen, respecting good works is, that it is possible to present so large an abundance of them to God, in the life of a truly converted man of God, that he may render far more out of his great zeal and love to God than God ever requires at his hand. This I need scarcely tell you, is the Romish doctrine of works of supererogation; and this you will find disposed of in the fourteenth article of our Church. But upon that we need not dwell. If there be a Protestant inclined to maintain so unscriptural a dogma, it is enough for him to consider what God really does require, before we presume to pronounce that man can be innocent. Almost a single extract from the Divine Word will set this at rest for ever. Our Lord himself has said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thyself." It is perfectly evident, then, that before works of supererogation can commence, works positively enjoined and commanded must have been completed. We do not then ask, where is

the man that has this perfect love to God and his neighbour; but we may fairly ask, supposing such an one loving God with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his strength, and his neighbour as himself, supposing such an one could be found (which we know to be impossible)-What possibility could exist of even this man giving more love, and doing more duties, than could be given when he gave the whole heart, or done when he was already engaged with the utmost efforts of his whole soul, and mind, and strength? The inquiry involves a contradiction even in terms; the point is too obvious to reason upon, and our article therefore wisely shuts it up with this single observation: "Christ saith plainly, when ye have done all these things, say, We are unprofitable servants.”

But there is yet a fourth error with respect to this same subject, the very contrary to those which we have already considered, but still not less an error than those which have preceded. This is the error of the Antinomians, who contend, that in the persons of the justified people of God, neither evil works nor good works are of any account; that sin in them will not offend God, and that works of piety, or holiness, or charity, will not please him: in fact, that every thing beyond the one great doctrine, and the one great privilege of the justified-the being in Christ, is utterly valueless and immaterial.

It is for the purpose of counteracting this most dangerous and licentious doctrine, as well as establishing that truth which we considered in the last discourse, that we are not accounted righteous for our own works or deservings, that the twelfth article was appointed. These are the words of the article: "Of Good Works. Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith, may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit."

Upon the former part of this article, which refers to the first error that we have enumerated, which plainly declares that good works cannot put away our sins, we need not dwell, having shown this from the word of God and the authority of our Church, while explaining the doctrine of justification: neither need we corroborate it by our homilies; it is sufficient to refer you to the Homily in Three Parts, dedicated to this express subject, and the Homily on Good Works. We will therefore only add a striking lesson, too valuable to be decried, from the admirable sermon of Hooker, from which we quoted on the last occasion, and which is as clear as to the necessity of good works in their place, and the utter fruitlessness of good works out of their place, as the last passage we cited was upon the nature of the sinner's justification. These are his words "The best things we do have somewhat in them to be pardoned; how then can we do any thing meritorious or worthy of reward? wherefore we acknowledge the dutiful necessity of doing well; but the meritorious dignity of doing well we utterly renounce. We see how far we are from the perfect righteousness of the law: the little fruit we have in holiness is (God knoweth ;) corrupt and unsound; we put no confidence in it; we challenge nothing in the world for it. We dare not call God to reckoning as if we had him in our debt books: our continual prayer is, and must be, to bear with our infirmities, and pardon our offences." The article before us having decided this point, continues most justly and