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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

1 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 according 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 mole of life (On), 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

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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.

That minister, therefore, who, by preaching the terrors of the judgment day, or by any other Scriptural means, induces men to repent of these crimes, will necessarily, and by a plain moral consequence, open their eyes, their ears, their heart, to receive the high saving principles of the Gospel; though he speaks not explicitly of them, any more than the Baptist did, or our LORD, or His Apostles. So palpably absurd, even on the plain grounds of moral principles, is it to speak of the teaching of repentance being opposed to the preaching of CHRIST.

This is an explanation of some obvious reasons why Holy Scripture should connect our own cross with the Cross of CHRIST, as it so often does, and emblematically typified of the Church, in him who bore the cross after CHRIST; for it is said to us all, "Whosoever doth not take up his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." Now there can be no repentance, and no progress in religious duties, without self-denial. These duties, therefore, are a bearing of our own cross, which will alone bring us to a right sense of the Cross of CHRIST. It is not setting aside the Cross of CHRIST, nor disparaging it; it is only showing the mode by which alone we may be brought to know its inestimable value.

He who most of all practises these duties, will be most of all brought, by a necessary and moral consequence, to value the Cross of CHRIST; and he who is brought to embrace that doctrine with most affection, will speak of it with most reserve; he cannot speak of it as these persons require. Nor can there be any reasonable apprehension, as it is sometimes said, that the teaching of the Church, which keeps the doctrine of the Atonement in the reserve of Scripture, will lead men to despair. Did any one ever know an instance of this, of a Christian, in sound health of mind, brought to a state of despair from the fear of GOD and His judg ments? There is a mistake in this use of the word despair, which rather means a careless, hopeless indifference to the anger of the Almighty, which is so common, than an excessive fear of His judgments. Such a fear brings with it abundant consolation and hope and therefore the true knowledge of this saving doctrine of the Atonement is expressed in such words as these, that "the salvation of God is nigh unto them that fear Him;" that the LORD

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looks to him who "trembles at His word;" that He "revives the spirit of the contrite;" or that "whoso is wise will ponder these things; and they shall understand the loving-kindness of the LORD."

We must again return to and repeat this point; good works, being nothing else but the exercise of a good principle, make a good man (as far as, humanly speaking, a man can be called good), and those are not good works which will not make a man good; and he is not a good man, who does not love God with all his heart, and depend on the aid of the blessed SPIRIT, and trust in CHRIST. He, therefore, who most of all induces men to practise good works, under the awful sense of their condition as baptized Christians, brings them most of all to the Cross of CHRIST; and he who, by his teaching, leads men to think that such works are of minor importance, and speaks slightingly of them, i. e. works of charity, of humiliation, and prayer, teaches men false and dangerous doctrine, flattering to human indolence, but opposed to Scripture, opposed to the Church, opposed to the first principles of our moral nature; and therefore it is said emphatically, "Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven :" that is to say, he who treats slightingly these good works, shall obtain least of all the blessings of CHRIST'S Spiritual kingdom at present, the gracious gifts which are in the Atonement of CHRIST, and by consequence be the lowest in His kingdom hereafter. By using high words of doctrine, without the inculcation of these commands, we lead men to trust to a vain shadow, instead of the Rock of their salvation. Doing the works or not it is which makes the entire difference between the house built on the sand, and that which is founded on a rock, though outwardly they appear alike as our LORD has warned, he who "heareth these words and doeth them, I will liken to a wise man, who built his house on a rock;" and every one who heareth them and doeth them not," is outwardly the same, perhaps, but has no foundation. And what is the rock on which he is built, but CHRIST? His very works are built on

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