' what

you have begun. You see, because the power of God every where co-operates with ⚫ the endeavours of man, that nobody can build

a house without the Lord, nobody can keep a

city without the Lord, nobody can begin any 'thing without the Lord.""* Here AMBROSE not only denies to man the "power" of persevering, but also the power of beginning "any thing (good) without the Lord."

§ 5. JEROME also is very explicit on this point of gracious causality from God. . "Man 'from the beginning of his condition, has God ' as an assistant; and since it was of his grace 'that he was created, and it is of his mercy that he subsists and lives, he can do no good work without him, who has so granted free-will, that he did not refuse his grace in any single 'work."' Again, "When, says he, you shall ' return to the Lord, he shall heal all your con'tritions and backslidings, by which you had departed from the Lord. For though, through your own will you return to the Lord, yet unless he shall draw you, and strengthen your ' desire by his support, you will not be able to be • saved."' Moreover;" For by grace ye are saved, through faith: and that not of your

*Refut. p. 380, 381. AMER. opera. vol. i. p. 1098. 1309. + Ib. p. 388.

+ Refut. p. 383.

selves it is the gift of God. Therefore, he says, 'he was about to shew the exceeding riches of 'his grace in the ages to come, in his kindness, 'because ye are saved by grace through faith, "not through works. And this very faith is not of 'yourselves, but of him who called you. But this is said, lest, perhaps, this thought should 'secretly arise in you; If we be not saved through our works, certainly we are saved

through faith, and in another way our salvation is owing to ourselves. Therefore he added and said, That faith itself is not of our will, but of the gift of God. Not that free-will is taken from man.

away

6. As to AUGUSTINE, who was so much engaged in opposing the Pelagian heresy, it is no wonder that he should refer all our good works, and all our graces, to God as their efficient source, though there were other heresies, still subsisting in his day, against which it was necessary to be guarded. "If, therefore, 'there be no grace of God, how does he save 'the world? And if there be not free-will, how "does he judge the world? Wherefore, under'stand my book or epistle according to this 'faith, that ye neither deny the grace of God, nor so defend free-will as to separate it from

* Refut. p. 406.

'the grace of God; as if you could by any means 'think or do any thing according to God without 'it, which is altogether impossible. For on this account, the Lord, when he spake concerning the fruits of righteousness, said to his disciples, Without me ye can do nothing." "* Again, "How are they said to deny free will, who 'confess that every man who believes in God

with his heart, believes only with his own 'free-will; whereas they rather oppose free'will, who oppose the grace of God, by which it is in reality free to choose and do what is "good?" Moreover: "He foreknew that 'their will would be bad; he foreknew it indeed, ' and because his prescience is infallible, the bad 'will is not on that account his, but theirs.

Why then did he create them who he knew 'would be such? Because, as he foreknew 'what evil they would do, so also he foresaw 'what good he would himself produce out of their 'bad actions. For he so formed them, that he

left them the means of doing something; by 'which whatever they should choose, even 'blameably, they would find him acting lauda'bly, concerning himself. For they have the 'bad will from themselves; but from him a good nature and a just punishment."' As it would be directly opposite to the design of

* Refut. p. 418. + Ib. p. 419.

Ib. p. 419.

AUGUSTINE to suppose him to intend by "a good nature," a nature which was once good, though now corrupted, or natural powers which are in themselves good; he must be concluded to mean, that "a good nature" existing in some, is from God as its immediate source, while the "bad will" in others is" from themselves."

7. The following observations of AUGUSTINE are also truly excellent, in proof of the same point, that God is the immediate source of our graces, from whence flow good works. "Let not any one say, Therefore God chose works in him whom he loved, although they 'did not yet exist, because he foreknew that

6

they would be but if he chose works, how

does the apostle say, that the election was not 'made of works? Wherefore it is to be understood, that good works are done through love, but that love is in us through the gift of the Holy Ghost, as the same apostle says, 'The 'love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.' Therefore no one ought to glory in his works as if they were his own, which he has by the gift of God, since love itself works good in • him." As far as the testimony of this

6

*Refut. p. 424.

Christian Father goes, what can be more decisive of the point in question?-and be it remembered that I do not quote all the passages that might be produced, but merely a few specimens.

§ 8. There are some passages in the Fathers, contained even in the very quotations which the Bishop has himself selected, that militate against his own avowed notions of baptism. Thus, for example, JUSTIN MARTYR: "What ' advantage is there in that baptism which makes clean flesh and body only? Wash your souls 'from wrath, and from covetousness, from envy, 'from hatred, and behold the body is pure.' And thus writes AUGUSTINE: "Water exhi'biting externally the sacrament of grace, and the Spirit internally operating the benefit of grace, loosing the bond of crime, and restoring ́ 'the goodness of nature, regenerate the man in

one Christ, born of one Adam."'† Here JUSTIN regards water baptism not as cleansing the soul, but terminating, as to its efficacy, on "flesh and body only:" and AUGUSTINE Contemplates baptism as a sacrament “exhibiting " grace externally; while the internal change is the work of the Spirit. The man is regenerated externally by water baptism, but internally by