Such are the four Articles of the Church of England which declare man’s natural corruption; his just exposure to Divine condemnation; his means of restoration to God’s favour; the meritorious cause of his salvation; and the inseparable union of faith and good works. From which may be drawn these two fundamental principles of the Christian faith—salvation, alone through the all-sufficient merits of Christ; and sanctification, alone through the renewing power of the Holy Ghost. Man is, in every respect, a dependent being: the same Almighty Power which formed his body from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; can alone enlighten, renew, and sanctify his soul. Thus faith—which is the rock on which the Church of Christ is built, and without which we shall never believe the promises, accept the offers, or attain the salvation of the Gospel—is the gift of God, and wrought in our souls by the Holy Spirit. United with faith is true repentance, which is no less the work of grace; for unless God enlighten the understanding, there will be no just sense of sin; unless He soften the heart, there will be no contrition: and from a true repentance there always springs holy obedience, which is also produced by the Spirit: for the same blessed Power which enlightens the darkness of the understanding and softens the hardness of the heart, also rectifies the perversion of the will, and sanctifies the corruption of the affections, that the believer may know, choose, obey, and love, the way of godliness. And thus we arrive at that blessed change in the life of a penitent, when he becomes “a new creature in Christ Jesus,” when “old things have passed away, and behold all things have become new;” when he has “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”