Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/69

Rh every man will be dealt with hereafter according to the nature and quality of his works. "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works," Matt. xvi. 27. "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and they were judged every man according to their works," Apoc. xx. 12, 13. We see then how charity and faith are united together, and included in good works. But it must ever be remembered, that in their origin, progression, and final effect, they are still of and from the Lord alone, he being in them as their soul and principal cause, while man is only the instrument, but an organized one, of bringing them forth. Hence it is, that, as all the good, which is done by man, actually proceeds from the Lord, man only co-operating with him apparently of himself, as an organized instrument in the hands of the principal Agent, no idea of human merit can for a moment be admitted; but the inclination, the ability, and the merit, are wholly and solely ascribed to him, from whom flows all that is good in the affection, all that is true in the thought, and all that is beneficial in the act.

IT is supposed by many, that perceptions, thoughts, and ideas, together with the various affections, of which man is susceptible, are either vague properties inherent in him, or else flow into him as so many radiations of light and heat, without there being any substance or form within him capable of receiving, modifying, and permanently detaining them. Hence they imagine, that thoughts and affections, like winged