and with much eloquence too, in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans,-that neither man's obedience to the law of nature, nor the law of Moses, was sufficiently perfect or sinless to please God by itself; on the contrary, that, in the very attempt, men lost themselves in every species of iniquity; that the "Jews and Gentiles were all under sin;" that "by the deeds of the law there could no flesh be justified in his sight;"* and that therefore, to remedy this unhappy condition of nature, "the righteousness of God without the law was manifested, being witnessed by the law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ,"† so that Christians were no longer "under the law but under grace." And he further illustrates the same doctrine by shewing that not even Abraham, or the best of the Patriarchs of old, could presume to claim God's favor by any merit or value in their works, but only through the principle on which they were done, viz. their faith in God,§ on account of the merits of Christ, whose atonement they already anticipated in the rite of sacrifice. This then constitutes the leading outline of his so much misunderstood doctrine, which goes *Rom. iii. 9, 20. Rom. vi. 14. + Rom. iii. 21, 22. to establish the point that works are of no value in themselves, whether they be works of the law of nature, or the law of Moses, and could have no claim of their own to merit in the sight of God; but that man's only hope could be in that grace and mercy of God by which, on the condition of our faith and repentance, he condescended to accept the sacrifice and merits of his Son in lieu of our imperfect and all-insufficient righteousness. But yet, while he stated thus much, St. Paul never meant that the faith through which we were to be justified, was to be a mere dead and inanimate principle: he required indeed belief, but in that belief he comprehended all the range of its accompanying obedience: he demanded the soil, but he implied the produce; he spake of the tree, but he did not exclude the fruits. And so he plainly tells us that, though "in Christ, circumcision availeth nothing, nor uncircumcision, but faith," yet that that faith itself "worketh by love;"* and, though "it is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us ;" still, as he declares in the same chapter, "this is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works;"† + Titus iii. 5. *Galatians v. 6. a doctrine which he repeats in a variety of passages too numerous to mention here, and confirms by a number of practical exhortations which, you will recollect, are appended to every one of his apostolical epistles. It was not therefore to contradict St. Paul, but only to reconcile one passage of his writings with another, and two apparently different but really connected doctrines of the gospel, that St. James wrote the words of the text. 'Faith,' such is the meaning of the passage, 'is indeed necessary to salvation, and the only principle from which we ought to act. But still, "faith, if it hath not works, is dead;" it is not only useless, it is dead, it has no life,-it has no existence,-it is not faith, a genuine, living, saving faith at all; "Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works;"a sound Christian may argue with his adversary, You may possess indeed that abstract profession and shadow of belief which is kept stored up in the imagination alone, but has never found its way into the heart or the life; but I prefer that the whole course of my conduct, as well as the mere words of my lips, should consistently proclaim the reality of mine: "Shew me," if thou canst, "thy faith without thy works;" prove if you can find any other mode by which man is wont to express the feelings of his heart; assert, if you think any one will trust you on such evidence, that you believe in that God who loves holiness, even while you are not holy, that you believe that gospel which requires obedience, even when you do not strive to obey. But, for my part, I am not content that the certainty of my faith should depend on such feeble evidences as these; I will not hope that others will trust me, nay, I will not trust myself that it is sincere, unless its proceeds and its consequences are able to prove it in the sight of God and man; and so I will let my life also exhibit the truth of that which my lips profess, and "I will shew my faith by my works."; II. Thus we see that those principles which some have supposed to be contrary and opposed to each other, are, in reality, only one and the same doctrine, explained, illustrated, and carried out into its natural consequences. But before I leave this part of my discourse, I will briefly mention two or three remarkable arguments in the chapter from which the text is taken, by which St. James has further substantiated the doctrine which has been stated above. The first of these is as follows: "What doth it profit," says he, "though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye gave them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith if it hath not works is dead."* Just as absurd would it be, (is his meaning,) to say to a poor brother," Brother, I compassionate thy case,go, be filled and be satisfied,”—and yet do nothing to relieve him; as to say, "Lord, I believe, and trust in thee, accept my belief, accept my homage," and yet do nothing to promote his service. As compassion and charity are mere unmeaning and empty names, unless the life also be compassionate and charitable, so devotion and faith are absolute nonentities, and can scarcely be said to exist, if they have their place in the lips or the imagination alone. Again, he says in the 19th verse, "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe and tremble." This also is another argument to show that it is possible to have a certain faith, and yet that that faith may be perfectly useless, nay, that it may rather condemn than save us, if it be not accompanied with obedience. The very worst of beings may believe in God; they may believe, in one sense, every article of the Christian scheme, and yet * James ii. 14, 15, 16, 17. |