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honesty, on repentance, on judgment to come, and without any mode of expression that excepts ourselves from that judgment; by urging those assistances to poverty of spirit, which Scripture recommends and the Church prescribes, such as fasting and alms, and the necessity of reverent and habitual prayer. These may be means of bringing persons to the truth as it is in JESUS CHRIST, with that awe and fear, which our LORD's own teaching and that of His Apostles would inspire; surely above all things should we be careful not to be deceiving ourselves and others by an irreverent handling of God's most sacred consolations. For otherwise are we not going against what our LORD declared to be His own teaching? are we not putting "new wine into old bottles," the Gospel blessings into the corruptions of the old man, of which we know the consequence? Are we not putting new cloth on an old garment;" the new cloth of the Christian Church on the old garment of the Jewish legal Church? Are we not exposing the sacred things of GoD committed to our charge, the secret treasures of His house, to our own great injury, and in a way to have evil effects on others also? May not such a mode of exposing all the riches of our Christian inheritance be likened to the conduct of king Hezekiah, when he showed all his treasures to the king of Babylon," all that is in mine house," said he, "have they seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them ;" and for this the sentence was declared, that to Babylon his children and his treasures should be taken. In like manner, the world will take captive those who thus lose their secret strength by a vain display; and this is, in effect, the same as our LORD has said in those words, "They will trample them under foot, and turn again and rend you."

With regard to the notion that it is necessary to "bring forward the doctrine of the Atonement on all occasions, prominently and exclusively," it is really difficult to say any thing in answer to an opinion, however popular, when one is quite at a loss to know on what grounds the opinion is maintained. Is it from its supposed effects? pious frauds might be supported on the same principle. But let us observe these effects as they be

come more fully developed; the fruits of the system have shown themselves in the disobedience of ministers to their ecclesiastical superiors, of individuals to their appointed ministers, of whole bodies of Christians to the Church. Is it the popularity of the opinion? this is not a test of truth, but an argument of the contrary; Christian truth is in itself essentially unpopular; and even were it otherwise, what is popularity when it is opposed to Catholic antiquity? Is it from Scripture? we have shown that the tone and spirit of Holy Scripture is quite opposed to it.

Do we then maintain that it is to be intentionally and designedly withdrawn from all public mention? nothing of this kind has been ever suggested or practised by us; this would of course be as unnatural as the other. Why should we not be content to act naturally, with the Church and Divine Scripture for our guides? why should not a conscience exercised therein, and practised in the discernment of good and evil, be content to act as our common sense and judgment, or, if we may reverently use such words, as the HOLY SPIRIT, ever enlightening the path of obedience, dictates, without shaping our conduct into this mould? Why should one who thus acts be thought unworthy of the Christian name? Why should it be thought necessary to bring proof and induction, and, as it were by a stretch of charity, to obtain some indication that such an one denies not the doctrine of the Atonement? which has been done in the case of the Fathers and Saints of old, and of Bishop Butler and others in our own Church.

It may be said, are we not saved by faith alone in CHRIST, and if so, what else have we to preach? It may be answered by another question, was it not the very office of the Baptist to be the herald of CHRIST, and yet, so little did he publicly make a practice of declaring this, that there was a doubt whether he was not himself the CHRIST: but instead of proclaiming Him aloud, he taught Repentance, and to each individual amendment of life. The Baptist declared, "I came that He might be manifested," but how was He to be manifested, excepting, as our LORD said, that He would manifest Himself unto him that kept His commandments. Therefore the Forerunner preached repentance. When he did allude to the Atonement, in the expression of" the LAMB of God,"

it was secretly and obscurely, and probably only to a few chosen and favoured disciples, who themselves could not have understood the clear meaning of the allusion, to whom it must have been a dark saying. Doubtless, we are saved by faith in CHRIST alone; but to come to know this in all its power, is the very perfection of the Christian; not to be instilled or obtained by lifting up the voice in the street, but by obedience and penitence, so that, as each man advances in holiness of life, and comes the more to know what God is, the more does he feel himself, with the Saints of all ages, to be the chief of sinners. But as for that assurance and sensible confidence, with which it is thought necessary that the doctrine should be preached and received, it would seem as if there was scarcely any thing against the subtle effect of which we are so much guarded in Holy Scripture as this: all those who are recorded as being most approved, were remarkable for the absence of it; as in the case of the Centurion, the Canaanitish woman, and others; above all, of those who at the last day shall be surprised with the welcome tidings that they are accepted: on the contrary, those who are rejected shall come with that plea of confidence, because they have prophesied in CHRIST'S name, and He has taught in their street, and will be condemned with emphatic words, as they that work iniquity; whereby the whole stress is thrown on that single point, which those who hold these opinions are most studious to make of secondary importance, the necessity of working righteousness.

Surely the doctrine of the Atonement may be taught in all its fulness, on all occasions, and all seasons, more effectually, more really, and truly, according to the proportion of the faith, or the need of circumstances, without being brought out from the context of Holy Scripture into prominent and explicit mention. Did not St. James preach the Gospel most effectually under the guidance of God's good SPIRIT? Did not St. Paul preach the Gospel to the Thessalonians, when he spoke of the day of Judgment, as well as to the Galatians, when in answer to certain Jewish prejudices, he set forth the only remission of sins to be found in the Cross of CHRIST? May not we regulate our teaching according to the case of the persons we address, as they

did? But above all, did not our LORD preach the Gospel? did He not say to the two disciples who came from St. John the Baptist, "To the poor the Gospel is preached?" But how was it preached? We know what His preaching was; He taught the Atonement always, but never openly: He taught it always; He taught it in the beatitudes, in the parables, in His miracles, in His commands, in His warnings, in His promises; He taught it always, but always covertly, never at all in the manner now required, but quite the opposite. And as it pervaded all our LORD's teaching; and ought to do, as we have stated, (Tract, No. 80. pp. 76, and 81,) the teaching of every good Christian; so surely it may do so in a way to be more effectually impressed on others, and to indicate its thorough reception into the character of the speaker, by one who might have even never prominently and explicitly declared it, any more than our LORD does in His own teaching. It may be impressed on others by the tone of a person's whole thoughts, by the silent instruction of his penitent and merciful demeanour, by immediate inference and implication from his sayings, by the only interpretation which his words will bear; but above all things, by the doctrine of the Sacraments ever influencing his life; He may thus ever bear about in the body the marks of the LORD JESUS, and preach CHRIST Crucified. Whereas, on the contrary, another who expressed this doctrine with all the fulness which is now required, might in all the tone of his disposition, his teaching, his whole bearing and conversation, be as far from it as one who had never heard of it; and adopt this tone to the great injury of himself and others. The important thing needed consists in those preparations of the heart, which may lead men to humiliation and contrition; when this is done, He who "dwells with the humble and the contrite," will never fail to lead them to all the consolations of Religion. Let us consider the case of a friend who consulted us on a matter that afflicted his conscience, how tender and careful should we be in such a case for fear of administering consolation too speedily, lest by so doing we check the workings of God's good SPIRIT, and heal too slightly His wounds to our friend's great detriment and shall we do this to all indiscriminately?

But besides this, the awful Name of the blessed SPIRIT, without Whom we can neither think nor do any thing that is right, is, as is supposed, ever in like manner to be proclaimed as it were in the market-place, and those who do not do so, are supposed to deny His power, the power of the ever blessed SPIRIT of GOD, in whose Name we were baptized, Whom in the doxology we confess daily, in Whom we live and move. Let these sacred words be introduced in our teaching, as they are in Holy Scripture. But even from this we almost shrink at feeling that they have been used in an unreal manner, and "taken in vain;" for these holiest of words may be constantly used by us, when we are not at all affected and influenced by so concerning a doctrine, which may be seen by the whole of our character in daily life, and tone of our teaching; by self-confidence, and an absence of that fear and trembling, which ever follows the consciousness, that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do. And what is done in such a case? Is the effect merely nugatory? Surely not by this irreverence to that most sacred Name. chance of real repentance in such a case.

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Surely this great and life-giving doctrine might be taught more truly by one who practised no obtrusive system of this sort; to say nothing of his practical instructions, every word of which might be calculated to teach a person dependence on God; but even by his silence. For instance, might not one like holy Simeon, (whom sacred Scripture has so strongly marked as one under the gracious guidance of the good SPIRIT, by the expression, thrice repeated, that "the HOLY SPIRIT was upon him," that it was revealed unto him of the HOLY SPIRIT," that " he came by the SPIRIT into the temple ;") might not such a one, by daily frequenting "the House of Prayer," with that earnestness and assiduity which showed that he felt himself unable to stand for a day without assistance from above, learn and teach so affecting a truth, as well as by set declarations concerning it? Might he not, by these habitual practices, be rendered meet to find CHRIST in His Temple, and to prophesy in His name?

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