from prayers in more ancient liturgies, passages are omitted, which relate to this nice and delicate subject (z). In one collect (a), however, we pray thus: "O God! who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations;" which words imply, that though we cannot always avoid sin, yet the frailty of our nature does not cause us invariably and necessarily to fall in every danger, or to yield to every temptation; but that all dangers cannot be escaped, or all temptations resisted, without divine assistance. In a second collect (b) "O God, because through the we pray, weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping thy commandments we may please thee, both in will and deed;" which is nothing more than altering the words of one of our Articles, already explained, into the form of a prayer; and I have only to observe, that the "good thing" here mentioned, must mean good in the sight of God: such an action our weak and unassisted nature will, unquestionably, not allow us to perform.

(z) Laurence's Sermons, p. 281.
(a) 4th of Epiphany.

(b) 1st Sunday after Trinity.

form. Upon a third occasion we pray in these words, "We beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies (c)." The desires therefore of the human heart are sometimes such that God may be supposed to view them with complacency, to assist, and promote them.

In many of the prayers of our Liturgy, the doctrines of Free-will and Divine grace, as asserted in the 10th Article, are fully and clearly recognized; and human exertions are considered both as possible and necessary. In the collect for Easterday we pray thus, "Almighty God,. . . . we humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace preventing us, thou dost put into our minds good desires; so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect:" here preventing grace is acknowledged as putting good desires into our minds, but we are represented as ourselves bringing them to good effect through the continual help of God; that is, in bringing good desires to effect, divine grace and human exertions cooperate.

In the collect for the sixth Sunday after the
Epiphany,

(c) Third Sunday in Lent.

Epiphany, we pray,

"O God, whose blessed

Son was manifested,

that he might destroy the

works of the devil, and make us the Sons of God, and heirs of eternal life; grant us, we beseech thee, that having this hope, we may purify ourselves, even as he is pure :" we here pray that we may purify ourselves, even as Christ himself is pure; which surely implies, that when animated by the hope of becoming the sons of God and heirs of eternal life, we have power to contribute in some degree to our purification, although we cannot attain, or even approach, the purity of Christ, without divine assistance. the collect for the second Sunday after Easter, we pray "God to give us grace, that we may daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blesesd steps of Christ's most holy life;" by the suggestion therefore, and with the help, of God's grace, we endeavour to follow the example of Christ, which shews that the grace of God does not act with compulsory force, but only directs and assists our endeavours.

In

In the collect for the ninth Sunday after Trinity, we pray to God, that "we, who cannot do any thing that is good without him, may by him be enabled to live according to his will:" we here confess our own weakness, and pray God to enable us to obey his will; which seems incom

patible with the idea of his acting solely and irresistibly.

In the collect for the first Sunday after Epiphany, we pray to God not only that, "we may perceive and know what things we ought to do, but that we may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same:" were grace irresistible, did it necessarily and solely produce a godly life, there would be no room for faithfulness on our part. In this prayer we entreat our Heavenly Father to enable us to know and perceive our duty, and therefore admit the insufficiency of our natural strength for this purpose, without the aid of the Spirit of God; but at the same time we acknowledge, that our own faithfulness, our sincere and uniform endeavour to obey the known will of God, is necessary to render this divine grace efficacious, and to produce a right application of this supernatural power. Faithfulness implies free-agency, a power to obey or to disobey. A servant is faithful to his master, but a machine necessarily executes the will of its maker. A kind master will reward the fidelity of a servant, although he has only done what it was his duty to do; and an all-merciful God has graciously promised to reward the faithfulness of his rational creatures with everlasting happiness, for the sake of his blessed Son. A grateful servant

will

will disclaim all right to the reward of his earthly master, and an humble Christian will acknowledge eternal life to be the free-gift of God through Jesus Christ.

In these and in numerous other passages of our Public Formularies, the necessity of divine assistance is acknowledged, but in no one instance is the exertion of irresistible grace declared or supposed. On the contrary, the necessity of the concurrence or co-operation of man is universally expressed or understood. We pray to God for the help, the assistance, the guidance of the Holy Spirit; which words cannot but imply the concurrence of our own wills and endeavours, some co-operation on our part. It will not be imagined that I mean that God could not exercise an irresistible power over the minds and actions of men. I only maintain, that we have no ground to believe that he does exercise such a power. It is not our business to speculate upon what God could have done to cause our obedience and secure our Salvation it is enough for us to search the Scriptures, and learn what God actually has done and promised, and then to consider what remains to be done by ourselves. After all the volumes which have been written upon the subject, the argument against the doctrine of irresistible grace lies in a very narrow compass. It has pleased