GRACE

This word is used in a variety of senses in Holy Scripture: but the general idea, as it relates to God , is his free favour and love; as it relates to men, the happy state of reconciliation and favour with God , wherein they stand, and the holy endowments, qualities, or habits of faith, hope, and love, which they po e . “We are accounted righteous before God , only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings: wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expre ed in the homily of justification.”— Article XI. The most pious of those who lived under the Mosaic dispensation, often acknowledge the nece ity of a istance from God . David prays to God to “open his eyes, to guide and direct him” (Ps. cxix. 18, 32–35); to “create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him.” (Ps. li. 10.) And Solomon says, that God “direct eth men’s paths, and giveth grace to the lowly.” Even we, whose minds are enlightened by the pure precepts of the gospel, and influenced by the motives which it suggests, must still be convinced of our weakne and depravity, and of the nece ity of Divine grace to regulate and strengthen our wills, and to co-operate with our endeavours after righteousne , as is clearly a erted in the New Testament. See the texts above cited, which sufficiently prove that we stand in need both of a preventing and of a co-operating grace; or, in the words of the Article, that “we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God , without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.” Dr. Nicholls, after quoting many authorities to show, that the doctrine of Divine grace always prevailed in the Catholic Church, adds, “I have spent perhaps more time in these testimonies than was absolutely nece ary; but whatever I have done is to show, that the doctrine of Divine grace is so e ential a doctrine of Christianity, that not only the Holy Scriptures and the primitive Fathers a ert it, but likewise that the Christians could not in any age maintain their religion without it; it being nece ary, not only for the discharge of Christian duties, but for the performance of our ordinary devotions.” And this seems to have been the opinion of the compilers of our most excellent liturgy, in many parts of which both a preventing and co-operating grace is unequivocally acknowledged; particularly in the second collect for Evening Service, in the fourth collect at the end of the Communion Service, and in the collects for Easter Day, for the fifth Sunday after Easter, and for the 3rd, 9th, 17th, 19th, and 25th Sun days after Trinity. This a istance of Divine grace is not inconsistent with the free agency of men (see Free Will ): it does not place them under an irresistible restraint, or compel them to act contrary to their will. Though human nature is greatly depraved, yet every good disposition is not totally extinguished, nor is all power of right action entirely annihilated. Men may therefore make some spontaneous, though feeble, attempt to act conformably to their duty, which will be promoted and rendered effectual by the co-operation of God’s grace: or the grace of God may so far “prevent” our actual endeavours, as to awaken and dispose us to our duty; but yet not in such a degree, that we cannot withstand its influence. In either case our own exertions are nece ary to enable us to “work out our own salvation,” but our “sufficiency” for that purpose is from God . The joint agency of God and man in the work of human salvation is pointed out in the following pa age: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. ii. 12, 13); and therefore we may a ure ourselves that free will and grace are not incompatible, though the mode and degree of their co-operation be utterly inexplicable.