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of the Mosaic law that were peculiar to the Jews, which clearly appeared from his own words to Peter, whom he accused of judaizing, when he knew nevertheless, "that a man is not justified by the deeds of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ," Gal. ii. 16; where by the faith of Jesus Christ is meant a faith directed towards Him and derived from Him and because by the deeds of the law are meant the deeds of the Mosaic law, he hath therefore distinguished between the law of faith and the law of works, and between the Jews and the gentiles, or the circumcision and the uncircumcision, and by the circumcision is there meant Judaism, as in all other places; and he even closes those sayings by these words, "Do we then make the law void through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law," Rom. iii. 31: he also saith in the preceding chapter, "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified," Rom. ii. 13; as also, verse 6, "That God will render unto every man according to his deeds," also, "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad," 2 Cor. v. 10; besides many other passages of the same apostle; from whence it appears, that Paul rejected faith without good works, as well as James, in his Epistle, chap. ii. 5, 17 to 26. That Paul understood the deeds of the Mosaic law, which was made for the Jews, is further affirmed to be evident from this circumstance, that every 'statute passed for the Jews, is in Moses called the law, thus the works of the law; this appears from the following passages: "This is the law of the sacrifice of peace-offering," Levit. vii. 11, and 37; "This is the law of the burnt-offering, of the meat-offering, of the trespass-offering, for the consecration, for the sacrifice and peace-offering, Levit. vii. 37 ;

* See above, n 338.

"This is the law of beasts and of fowls," Levit. xi. 46, and following verses; "This is the law of her that hath borne a male or a female," Levit. xii. 7; "This is the law of the plague of leprosy," Levit. xiii. 59, xiv. 2, 32, 54, 57; "This is the law of him that hath an issue," Levit. xv. 32; "This is the law of jealousy," Numb. v. 29, 30; "This is the law of the Nazarites," Numb. vi. 13, 21; "This is the law when a man dieth in a tent," Numb. xix. 14; "This is the law of the red heifer," Numb. xix. 2; "The law for a king," Deut. xvii. 15 to 19; nay, the whole book of Moses is called "the book of the law," Deut. xxxi. 9, 11, 12, 26; as also in Luke ii. 22, xxiv. 24, John i. 46, vii. 22, 23, viii. 5. To this also it is added, that it might be seen in Paul, that a man must live according to the law of the decalogue, and that it is fulfilled by charity, Rom. xiii. 8, 9, 10, 11; and also that he says, "Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, but the greatest of these is charity," 1 Cor. xiii. 13, and not faith. These assertions, they informed me, were what they were assembled to consider. So, not to disturb them, I withdrew; and then again, afar off, they appeared like goats, sometimes as lying down, and sometimes as standing up, but they turned themselves away from the flock of sheep: they appeared as lying down when they were in deliberation, and as standing up when drawing their conclusions. I kept my sight fixed on their horns, and wondered to see that the horns on their foreheads sometimes appeared as projecting forward and upwards, sometimes as bent towards the back, and at last as quite bent back. Then of a sudden they turned towards the flock of sheep, yet still they appeared as goats: so I approached them again, and asked what they had determined on: they said, "They had concluded that faith alone produceth the goods of charity, as a tree produceth fruits." But just then a clap of thunder was heard, and a flash of lightning was seen from above; and presently an angel appeared standing between the two flocks, who cried

to the flock of sheep, "Do not hearken to them; they have not receded from their former faith, which is, that faith alone justifies and saves, and that actual charity is of no avail: neither is faith as a tree, but man; but repent ye, and look to the Lord, and ye shall have faith. Faith before repentance is not a faith in which there is any life." Then the goats, with their horns bent backwards, were desirous to approach the sheep; but the angel standing between them, divided the sheep into two flocks, and said to those on the left, who favoured the goats, "Adjoin yourselves to the goats, if you will, but I assure you that a wolf will come, that will seize them, and you along with them."

But after the two flocks of sheep were separated, and those on the left had heard the threatning words of the angel, they mutually looked at each other, and said, "Let us converse with our former companions." Then those on the left spoke to those on the right, saying, "Why do ye separate from our pastors? Are not faith and charity one thing, as a tree and its fruits are? For a tree by its branches is continued into its fruit, and if a part of the branch, by which the tree by continuation flows into its fruit, is broken off, will not the fruit perish, and along with it the seed of the tree that should serve for a future growth? Ask our priests whether it is not so." They then asked the priests, and these looked round to the rest, who winked at them to say that the flock had spoken well: the priests then answered, "Ye have spoken aright; but as to what concerns the continuation of faith into good works, as of a tree into its fruit, we are acquainted with many mysteries, but this is not the place to make them public: for in the band or thread connecting faith and charity, there are many little knots, which we, who are of the priesthood, are alone able to untie:" Then one of the priests who was among the sheep on the right, arose and said, "They have answered you, that this matter is so, but to their own party, that

it is not so, for they think otherwise." The first enquirers asked therefore, "How do they think? Do they think as they teach?" He said, "No, for they think that all the good of charity, which is called good work, done by man with a view to salvation and eternal life, is not in the least degree good, because they suppose that in a work done by him, he seeks to save himself, and arrogate to himself the righteousness and merit of the one Saviour as his own, and that this is the case in every good work in which he is sensible of the interference of his own will; wherefore they assert that there is no sort of conjunction whatever between faith and charity, and that faith is not even retained nor preserved by good works." But those on the left said, "What thou has asserted of them is not true; for do they not openly preach to us charity and its works, which they call the works of faith?" To this he answered, "Ye do not understand their preachings; for none but such of the clergy as may be present attend to and understand their meaning; for they mean only moral charity, the civil and political goods of which are what they call the good works of faith, although they are not really so, for an atheist can do such works in like manner, and under the same form; wherefore they maintain unanimously, that no man is saved by any works, but by faith alone. But I will illustrate this by comparisons, thus: an apple-tree produces apples; but they assert, that if a man does good works for the sake of salvation as this tree produceth apples by continuity, then the apples are inwardly rotten, and full of worms. Again: a vine produces grapes; but they assert, that if a man should do spiritual good, as a vine produceth grapes, he would produce only wild grapes." But then they asked, "What then is the nature of their goods of charity, or of those works which they consider as the fruits of faith?" He answered, "Perhaps they are some secret operations, wholly imperceptible, the abode of which

is somewhere near faith, with which, however they have no coherence, being but like a man's shadow, which is behind him when he looketh towards the sun, and is not observable to him unless he turn himself backwards; nay I may even say, that they are like the tails of horses, which are now commonly cut of in many places, from a supposition that there is no use in retaining them, and that if suffered to continue attached to the horse they would be very liable to get defiled." Having heard this, some one in the flock of sheep on the left said, in great indignation, "There certainly is some kind of conjunction, or else how can they be called the works of faith? Perhaps the goods of charity are insinuated by God into the voluntary works of man by some kind of influx, or by some affection, aspiration, inspiration, incitement, and excitation of the will, some tacit perception in the thought, and hence by exhortation, contrition, and so by conscience, with a consequent impulse to action and obedience of the decalogue and the Word, either as an infant, or as one endowed with wisdom; or by some other means like these; for otherwise how could good works be called fruits of faith?" To these things the priest answered, "They do not allow this to be the case; and if they say that good works are produced by some such means, yet they so manage it, by other expressions in their sermons, as to prove that they are not from faith after all. Yet some of them do support such things, but then only as signs of faith, and not as the bonds of connection between it and charity. Some nevertheless have contrived a conjunction by the Word." The others then said, "Is there not a conjunction then?" But he answered, "They do not mean a real conjunction, but only the mere hearing of the Word; for they assert, that all the rational and voluntary faculties of man, are, in matters of faith, impure and meritorious, because in spiritual matters he can no more understand, will, work, and co-operate, than a block." But one of them,

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