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of our works, lest any man should boast and say, I have wrought out mine own salvation." By grace they confess, but by grace in such a sort, that as many as wear the diadem of bliss, they wear nothing but that which they have won '."

In the fourth place, it is a most fruitful source of superstition. First, the doctrine of supererogation is built upon it. To aid in building up this doctrine, that most demoralizing classification of sins, into such as are mortal, and such as are vénial, is required. For as justifying grace can only be lost by sins that are mortal, and such sins may be avoided by all those who walk with ordinary circumspection, it is evident that it remains exposed only to those injuries which it may sustain from sins that are venial. Now such injuries are held not to be great, and when suffered, to be easily reparable. Since loss and injury, therefore, may be constantly repaired, and works of condignity may be constantly performed; and since while thus on the one hand, grace is not diminished, and on the other, it is in a state of constant augmentation, it is evident that there is no limit to its increase but the life of its possessor. But here another article of doctrine is necessary, which is that works of condignity may be performed, and, therefore, grace obtained exceeding the personal requirement of the individual who performs the works and obtains the grace.

1 Hooker on Just. § 34.

It is a simple dogma of the Church of Rome, not only unsupported by Scripture, but directly opposed to it, that such excess is possible, or being possible is meritorious. The works held to be most pregnant of such grace, are, mortification, fastings, selfinflicted punishments, and all the austerities of monastic life by these, supererogatory merit is acquired; when acquired, all that is not necessary for the satisfaction of the acquirer's own venial sins, is laid up in that treasury, of which the Church herself keeps the key, and it is dealt out according to the traffickings of her priests, to those who pay the sum demanded. And thus, each person who has contributed to this sum total of merit, becomes, to a certain extent, a second Christ to his brethren, for from him to them flow those streams of merit, which, when applied to him by the Church, constitute a satisfaction for the sins he has committed. Is not God's house made, indeed, a den of thieves? "Will a man rob God?" asks the prophet. But they have stretched forth their hands to the very brow of Jesus, and robbed Him of the best and brightest jewel of His mediatorial

crown!

We mentioned that by the Romish sacrament of penance, eternal punishments were changed to temporal ones, to be borne in purgatory, if not lightened here. Do we wonder at the pilgrimages

1 Malachi iii. 8.

which they take to distant shrines? at the lands bequeathed for masses? at the monastic houses and churches which they built of old, and are building The desire to escape from the purgatorial fires, or the hope of increasing supererogatory merit, will account for all. Oh, it is mournful to contemplate so large a portion of Christendom given up to so strong and lying a delusion! The merit of the righteousness of Christ is deemed insufficient for the saddened and penitent sinner, but the merit of the saints may be purchased, and stand him in the stead of satisfaction. The soul that in its dying hour has looked to Him in vain for help, may be delivered from threatened penal fires by money paid, and masses sung! The man who is denied the peace which a reliance on the merit of Christ alone can give, is told to look unto his own sinful and hollow heart, to his own unworthy and polluted actions, and to find it there. Oh, is it not telling him to look for tranquillity on the waves, or quiet in the hurricane?

With deep and conscious shame we acknowledge the activity and self-denial which this delusive creed has ever produced. But such fruits must not deceive us they are no ways pleasing to God, because they spring from no heavenly principlethey are of that class which the Apostle condemns, under the name of "will-worship, and voluntary humiliation." They are like the apples of Sodom, they may look fair to the eye of man, but God

beholds the ashes within, and loathes the distasteful fruit. They may take the language of the Apostle, and call their faith a principle which "worketh by love ';" but, in reality, it is faith which worketh by fear, or by pride. Ours is the true faith of the Apostle, a faith "rooted and grounded in love," taking its first origin in love, and receiving from love its constant, and ever renewed, impulses. The faith which worketh by love, is that heavenborn principle which manifests itself in labours for the good of man, because it has sprung from a conscious perception of the love of God; which never ceases to labour, because God never ceases to love; which lives in the emotions, ever salient, of a grateful heart, and manifests itself in the unwearied activity of a life devoted to the good of His creatures, and to the glory of His name. "We love Him," says St. John," because He first loved us." We give our lives, our gold, our substance, for His cause, with deep and ready gratitude, because "we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet, for our sakes, He became poor; that we, through His poverty, might become rich 2."

Let us turn from this painful delineation of the errors of Romanism, to a short review of Protestant truth.

It is our creed that a man is justified by faith

1 Gal. v. 6.

2

Cor. viii. 9.

alone in the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and that, in the matter of justification, his works have no part.

This is the doctrine of the early Fathers,-this is the doctrine of our Articles and Homilies, and this is the doctrine of Scripture, this is the Faith once delivered unto the saints.

First, then, this is the doctrine of the early Fathers'. "Faith," says Hilary, " faith only justifieth." "This," says Basil," is a perfect and a whole rejoicing in God, when a man advanceth not himself for his own righteousness, but acknowledgeth himself to lack true justice and righteousness, and to be justified by the only faith in Christ."

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This," again says Ambrose," is the ordinance of God, that they which believe in Christ should be saved without works, by faith only freely receiving remission of sins." Such are the sentences of some of the Fathers. We cannot fail to observe, that in each passage the word only is introduced,-a word whose introduction serves not merely to show the clear way in which they themselves held the doctrine, but the danger they felt, lest, in the article of justification, there might be any admixture of works or of the merit of man.

In citing these authors, the language of the second homily on salvation is very remarkable :"Consider diligently these words; without works,

See Sec. Part of Homily on Salvation.