Particular passages may mislead as to the general character of an author’s teaching; but there is a ring in these words, indicating at once the kind of metal of which Smith’s theology is made. It is of the same substance throughout. “The righteousness of faith,” he says, “and the righteousness of God, is a Christ-like nature in a man’s soul, or Christ appearing in the minds of men by the mighty power of His Divine Spirit, and thereby deriving a true participation of Himself to them.” And in accordance with this, and showing at the same time the author’s shrinking from definite and precise forms of dogmatic statement, such as may be found in Anglicans on the one side, and in Puritans on the other, he observes that the Gospel “was not brought in, only to refine some notions of truth that might formerly seem discoloured and disfigured by a multitude of legal rites and ceremonies; it was not to cast our opinions concerning the way of life and happiness only into a new mould and shape in a pedagogical kind of way; it is not so much a system and body of saving Divinity, but the spirit and vital influx of it, spreading itself over all the powers of men’s souls, and quickening them into a Divine life; it is not so properly a doctrine that is wrapt up in ink and paper as it is _vitalis scientia_, a living impression made upon the soul and spirit.”[459] Another name challenges attention. The ever-memorable John Hales, pronounced by Pearson to have had “as great a sharpness, quickness, and subtlety of wit as ever this or perhaps any nation bred,” had been a Calvinist; but he said, that at the Synod of Dort, which he attended, he bid John Calvin good-night. He had certainly what might be termed very broad views of Christian faith; for he remarked, “The Church is like Amphiaraus, she hath no device, no word in her shield; mark and essence with her are all one, and she hath no other note but to be.”[460] This was a statement which removed him to an equal distance from both Anglicans and Puritans; and one sentence from a sermon by Hales is sufficient to show how widely his teaching as to the way of salvation differed from all preachers of the latter class. “The water of baptism, and the tears of true repentance, creatures of themselves weak and contemptible, yet through the wonderful operation of the grace of God annext unto them, are able, were our sins as red as twice-dyed scarlet, to make them as white as snow.”[461] Hales was as orthodox as a man could be on the subject of the Trinity;[462] and, in his masterly sermon on Christian omnipotency, plainly asserts the power and sufficiency of Divine grace.[463] [Sidenote: LIBERAL ORTHODOX.--FARINDON.]