as the dictates of heaven,' to use the words of a learned author.* "I would also bring to your remembrance the death by penance of the Abbé de Paris, a Jansenist, who held, in common with many of his brethren, the idea that such acts obtained greater blessings for the church. The miracles, said to have been performed by this fraternity, however well authenticated they may appear to be, I cannot consider in any other light than the work of men, who deemed imposition pardonable in the affairs of the church. No, my dear sir, blessed be God, such are not the opinions of Protestants, of those who have been called from darkness into the marvellous light of the gospel of Christ Jesus. Again and again would I repeat to you, penance for sin can no more appease the wrath of offended God, than any endeavour of yours can wrest the sun from his place in the heavens. I would conjure you not to trust in fallible man; rather to consult, as you value your eternal peace, and deeply study the inspired oracles * Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 111. 6 of God. I grieve to think that you should have possessed that treasure, and that you should have relinquished it. I do not blame you. How can I tell how I might act, placed as you appear to be? It is easy-yes, my dear sir, very easy for those, on whom the fire of persecution has never kindled, to blame the martyr of Prague for his partial recantation, or, in like manner, Cranmer, or, to go farther, to stigmatise the apostles, of whom, in that hour when the Lord of glory suffered, it is written, they all forsook him, and fled.' No, blessed be God, I do not blame you; but deeply do I grieve over you; and, by all that is most sacred, would I beseech you to obtain a copy of the scriptures. I know this is difficult, and I wish that I had any means of conveying one to. you. If, however, you can obtain the precious volume, I enclose a letter, with directions, to a friend on the continent, desiring him to send a New Testament of Diodati to your address. May the Lord bless it to your everlasting profit. "I especially request your attention to the following passages of scripture, for I still perceive that you are confiding to a broken reed. Again would I assure you, in all faithfulness, works cannot save you: .' a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.'-Gal. ii. 16. Do you ask what is faith? I cannot do better than transcribe the words of one of the most able of our modern writers on the subject; his name may be less offensive to you than the champion of the Reforma tion: That the true meaning, therefore, of faith in Christ, or in God through Christ, is not merely, or properly, belief in the scripture narrative concerning our Lord, or an assent of the understanding to certain propositions derived from that narrative, however true, and however important they be; but that it is TRUST IN CHRIST, OR IN GOD THROUGH CHRIST, founded upon such an assent; an entire and unreserved confidence in "Wherefore the law was our school master, to bring us unto might be justified by faith.' Christ, that we "Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short. of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.' Rom. iii. 22-24. "Faith in Christ is the gift of God; without it, it is impossible to please him. Pardon me, then, if I say that faith cannot be entire trust in God which believes the Christ and his work aught other than as exhibited in the gospel. From your letter, I learn you are still performing what you consider meritorious acts; you are looking to them to work out your salvation, in place of trusting WHOLLY to the efficacy of that blood, without * See Sermons on Justification by Faith, by Dr. O'Brien, Trinity College, Dublin, Ser. i. p. 14. shedding of which there is no remission of sins. We are told by Jesus himself that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light, that his commandments are not grievous.' 1 John v. 3. Examine these words in contradistinction to that weight of misery you are imposing upon yourself. Christ Jesus hath alone fulfilled the law, and made it honourable; the Council of Trent has indeed enacted that good works of the just are truly meritorious, and anathematises those who declare, that the works of the just are the gifts of God, and are not withal the merits of the justified,' (Council of Trent, sess. vi, can. 32;) but against this stands recorded, for our benefit, the words, ' But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.' Isa. lxiv. 6. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand?" Psalm cxxx. 3. 6 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one.' Job xiv. 4. "We read that God cannot look upon iniquity, and that we are accepted only in |
