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the middle of the last century, they used in their devotional exercises, particularly in their hymns, many expressions justly censurable: but these have been corrected. They consider lutherans and calvinists, to be their brethren in faith, as according with them in the essential articles of religion; and therefore, when any of their members reside at a distance from a congregation of the united brethren, they not only attend a lutheran or calvinist church, but receive the sacrament from its ministers, without scruple. In this, they profess to act in conformity to the convention at Sendomir.

The union, which prevails both among the congregations, and the individuals, which compose them, their modest and humble carriage, their moderation in lucrative pursuits, the simplicity of their manners, their laborious industry, their frugal habits, their ardent but mild piety, and their regular discharge of all their spiritual observances, are universally acknowledged and admired. Their charities are boundless, their kindness to their poor brethren is most edifying; there is not among them a beggar. The care, which they bestow on the education of their children, in forming their minds, chastening their hearts and curbing their imaginations,-particularly in those years,

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When youth, elate and gay,

"Steps into life and follows, unrestrained,

"Where passion leads, or reason points the way;"

LOWTH;

are universally acknowledged, universally admired,

and deserve universal imitation.

But, it is principally by the extent and success of their missionary labours that they now engage the attention of the public. These began in 1732. In 1812, they had 33 settlements in heathen nations 137 missionaries were employed in them: they had baptised 27,400 converts: and such had been their care in admitting them to that sacred rite, and such their assiduity in cultivating a spirit of religion among them, that scarcely an individual had been known to relapse into paganism. All travellers who have visited their settlements speak with wonder and praise, of the humility, the patient endurance of privation and hardship, the affectionate zeal, the mild and persevering exertions of the missionaries; and the innocence, industry and piety of the converts :the European, the American, the African, and the Asiatic traveller speak of them, in the same terms: and, that they speak without exaggeration, the conduct both of the pastor and the flock in the different settlements of the united brethren in England, incontestibly proves. Whatever he may think of their religious tenets, Talis cùm sis, utinam noster esses, must be the exclamation of every christian, who considers their lives*.

* Those who desire further knowledge of this amiable and worthy denomination of christians, will find it in David Crantz's Ancient and Modern History of the Brethren, printed at Barby, 1771, and the two Continuations of it, Barby, 1791, and 1804. The History has been translated into English, and is become exceedingly scarce: the Continuations have not been translated. Mr. La Trobe, the pastor of the united brethren in London, has published a Concise Historical Account of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren adhering to the Confession of Augsburgh.

LXXIV. 4.

The Difference between the Roman-catholic Church and the Lutherans and Methodists, on the subject of Justification.

WITH a short statement of this difference, we shall close this chapter.

"The justification of the sinner," to use Luther's own language, "was the principle and source "from which all his doctrine flowed." So great, in his opinion, was the importance of this article of christian faith, that he thought himself warranted in asserting, that, "while the doctrine upon it was σε pure, there would be no reason to fear either "schism or division; but that, if the true doctrine

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of justification were altered, it would be impossible "to oppose error, or to stop the progress of fanati"cism." It is far from the object of these pages to enter into any thing like controversial discussion; but the writer thinks his readers will not be displeased to find in this place, an accurate statement of the doctrines of the roman-catholic and lutheran churches upon this important tenet of their respective creeds. It is expressed, with extreme accuracy, in the Letters of father Scheffmacker, a work highly celebrated on the continent t. The writer of these

* Luth. Op. ed. Jenæ 1561, tom. vi. p. 13. Ibid. tom.iii. p. 189.

+ Lettres d'un Docteur Catholique à un Protestant, sur les principaux Points de Controverse. Rouen, 1769. Deuxieme lettre, sur la justification.

letters begins that, which relates to the point in question, by observing to his lutheran correspondent, that, "if there be a point, on which persons have "disputed with warmth, and without sufficiently understanding one another, on either side, it must be " acknowledged, that the question on the justification "of a sinner, is a point of that description.

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"You teach," he proceeds to observe, "that the "sinner is solely justified by faith; that, after having offended God, and lost his grace, we obtain "the remission of our sins, and are restored to the friendship of God, by means only of an act of "faith-every other act of virtue, as acts of contrition, good resolution, hope, charity, &c. having, "as you pretend, no part in the sinner's justifica❝tion.

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Now, to form a just idea of the faith, which you maintain to be the only means of reconciling us with God, it is to be remarked, that it is not "the faith, which is understood by that word, in "its common acceptation; that is to say, a general "faith, by which we believe all that God has "revealed to us. You require, that it should be a

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special faith, on the merits of Christ; and this "faith, as your doctors explain it, contains first, an "act of the understanding, by which we acknow

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ledge, that Jesus Christ has died for us; that "he has fully satisfied for our sins; and that he presents to us his merits, his satisfaction, and his "remission of our sins: and secondly, an act of the

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will, by which we accept all this, in applying and "appropriating to ourselves what is offered to us,

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by Jesus Christ,—I mean his merits and the re"mission of our sins.

"It is, however, necessary, that we do you the "justice to acknowledge, that you require justifying "faith to be fruitful in good works; for you de"clare explicitly, that if faith be not accompanied "by good works, it is not a true faith; that we "must be careful to avoid imagining, that justifying "faith can subsist with a wish to persist in sin; that, "those, who have not contrition, and are resolved "to continue to live in their disorders, have not the "faith which justifies and saves them. Luther's expression is, faith and good works are inseparably connected; it is faith only which justi"fies, but justifying faith is never single, and "without good works.'

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"We believe,-First, that faith, taken in the "ordinary sense of that word, that is, for the virtue "which makes us believe revealed truths, is abso"lutely necessary for the justification of the sinner. "We are fully persuaded that no works done before "faith, or without faith, by the mere strength of free-will, or human reason, can have any part in "the justification of the sinner.

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Secondly, We believe, that faith alone does "not suffice to justify the sinner; that, in addition "to it, there must be a sincere sorrow for sin, a "firm resolution not to relapse into it, a salutary "fear of the judgments of God, with a true confi"dence in the merits of Jesus Christ, and in the "Divine mercy.

"Thirdly,-We believe, that though the sinner

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