inst
the Papists, '_Pereant sophistae cum sua maledicta glossa!_'"

"Then it differs from false faith in nothing."

"Not so," said Freeborn; "it differs from it in its fruits: 'By their
fruits ye shall know them.'"

"This is coming round to the same point again," said Charles; "fruits
come after; but a man, it seems, is to take comfort in his justification
_before_ fruits come, before he knows that his faith will produce them."

"Good works are the _necessary_ fruits of faith," said Freeborn; "so
says the Article."

Charles made no answer, but said to himself, "My good friend here
certainly has not the clearest of heads;" then aloud, "Well, I despair
of getting at the bottom of the subject."

"Of course," answered Freeborn, with an air of superiority, though in a
mild tone, "it is a very simple principle, '_Fides justificat ante et
sine charitate_;' but it requires a Divine light to embrace it."

They walked awhile in silence; then, as the day was now closing in, they
turned homewards, and parted company when they came to the Clarendon.

CHAPTER XVII.

Freeborn was not the person to let go a young man like Charles without
another effort to gain him; and in a few days he invited him to take tea
at his lodgings. Charles went at the appointed time, through the wet and
cold of a dreary November evening, and found five or six men already
assembled. He had got into another world; faces, manners, speeches, all
were strange, and savoured neither of Eton, which was his own school,
nor of Oxford itself. He was introduced, and found the awkwardness of a
new acquaintance little relieved by the conversation which went on. It
was a dropping fire of serious remarks; with pauses, relieved only by
occasional "ahems," the sipping of tea, the sound of spoons falling
against the saucers, and the blind shifting of chairs as the flurried
servant-maid of the lodgings suddenly came upon them from behind, with
the kettle for the teapot, or toast for the table. There was no nature
or elasticity in the party, but a great intention to be profitable.

"Have you seen the last _Spiritual Journal_?" asked No. 1 of No. 2 in a
low voice.

No. 2 had just read it.

"A very remarkable article that," said No. 1, "upon the deathbed of the
Pope."

"No one is beyond hope," answered No. 2.

"I have heard of it, but not seen it," said No. 3.

A pause.

"What is it about?" asked Reding.

"The late Pope Sixtus the Sixteenth," said No.