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"cannot do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without his grace by "Christ preventing us and cooperating "with us." If the peculiar tendency of this clause were not otherwise manifest, the scholastical terms, "works pleasant "and acceptable to God," would sufficiently point it out; especially when it is considered, that these words are not to be found in the author, from whom the principal part of the passage was taken, but were inserted by our Reformers, in order thus to fix its application. With respect to the argument itself, its object is to prove, that by the exertion of our natural powers we cannot please God congruously, but that for this purpose the assistance of grace is requisite; not of that grace, it is added, still further to carry on the contrast, which we can merit by a previous preparation, but which Christ has merited for us,

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gratia, quæ per Christum est;" (expressions, we should likewise observe, not used by (8) St. Austin;) nor of that, which being acquired by an act of the will, must necessarily be consequent to it; but which prevents, or more properly precedes such an act, and cooperates with the mind in the production of it. The inference dedu

cible from hence is obvious. It is this ; that as human ability by its own efficiency cannot claim acceptance with God, but is incompetent to a due renovation of the heart, to that, which, as it is expressed in our Homilies, is not "man's only work "without God," (") we must look for other means to appease the anger, and obtain the approbation of Heaven.

But, although the strict philosophical question respecting the freedom of the mind appears not to be involved in the enquiry, some have endeavoured so to interpret the word "prevent," as if it meant not simply to go before the act of the will, but to impede the liberty of its action ; and, forgetful of what follows, have contended for the idea of such an inoperation, as entirely excludes all personal agency. To enter into an explanation of this word, before those whom I am addressing, would be superfluous; it may nevertheless, perhaps, be proper to observe, that it was used in the English language according to the more obvious sense of it in the Latin, even subsequently to the Reformation; a fact, which our common translation of the Bible sufficiently proves. "We," it is there said, "which are alive and remain

"unto the coming of the Lord, shall not

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prevent them that are asleep, but shall "be caught up together with them in the "clouds." (10) When, however, any doubt arises with regard either to the meaning or the construction of an Article, the Latin, and not the English, copy ought always to be consulted; because this, as a mere translation, has been differently printed in different editions; while that, as the original, has never varied. If then we refer to the Latin, the force of the expression, in the sense which I have annexed to it, will not only be apparent from the general use of it in that language, but be fully corroborated by another circumstance. For by comparing the Article with the source from which it was derived, we perceive, that, instead of the term operans, which St. Austin adopted, our Reformers substituted (and certainly not without design) that of præveniens, a term studiously selected to point out the period, and not the mode, of divine assistance, when considered separately; and when combined with the remainder of the definition, to point out, that grace does not, as the Scholastics held, follow, but precede, the acceptable will, and concur with us in producing it.

To establish however such an interpretation beyond controversy, it may be objected, that a further change seems requisite; that the cooperation should have been specifically represented as taking place before the disposition is actually formed, and while it is yet only in formation. Prove this, it may be said, and the conclusion will be inevitable. Now it is singular, that a change of the kind alluded to has been made in the language of St. Austin; that the sentence, which in him is read,

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Cooperante cum volumus," was altered by our Reformers, to avoid all ambiguity, into "Cooperante dum volumus ;" the conjunction dum being manifestly chosen for the express purpose of unequivocally asserting a cooperation during the continuance of volition, while the act of the mind is incomplete, and still in a state of progression ("). Thus, in opposition to the creed of their adversaries, while they considered grace as a cause, and not a consequence, of the will, they held it not to be the sole, but only a concomitant, cause; and, anxious in the extreme to express themselves without obscurity on this point, they so corrected the passage, upon which the clause was modelled, as to

convey their meaning with precision, and to prevent, one would conceive, the very possibility of a misconstruction.

To their object in so strenuously maintaining the cooperation of divine aid, at a period previous to the actual volition of good, I have already alluded: it was simply to oppose the offensive doctrine of congruous merit, as the means of pleasing God, and of obtaining grace without Christianity; a doctrine, which in their ear sounded so hollow as to ring at every touch.

;

Upon this construction, therefore, which seems the most appropriate and consistent, it is evident, that they considered not the intricate subject of Free Will in a general, but only in a particular, point of view averting from a controversy, which is rather calculated to gratify polemical vanity, than promote personal humility, and which is seldom discussed without sacrificing the simplicity of Christian truth to the pride of metaphysical talent. Although they denied not that the decency of moral, and the dignity of philosophical virtue are within the sphere of our natural ability, they nevertheless argued, that virtue merely human possesses not a propitiatory and