Page images
PDF
EPUB

'can a man make manifest by good works? Can it be any other than his conviction of the obligation, or necessity, or expediency, of performing those works?-we do not say, his conviction that there is any inherent merit, or atoning efficacy in them; but his conviction that it is his duty or his interest to perform them?

The faith which justifies us before God implies, most certainly and essentially, a belief in the reality and sufficiency of our Lord's atonement for our sins ;-but in what conceivable manner can this article of faith be evinced by good works, otherwise than as it reinforces our conviction of the obligation which lies upon us to perform them; or confirms our persuasion of the evil to be escaped, and the good to be obtained, in doing them? Whatever sentiments of devotion, whatever feelings of awe and gratitude towards God, that especial and distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel may be calculated to awaken, how can our belief of it be shown by good works, any further than as it strengthens our conviction that it is the will of God, and essential to our salvation, that we should perform good works? Or, speaking generally, by what means can our faith in the Gospel be productive of holiness,

except by applying a stimulus to the conscience, and quickening into life and activity the inert sense of duty towards God and our fellow-creatures ?-thereby exciting that "hunger and thirst after righteousness," of which our Saviour spoke, and promoting the nourishment and maturity of the moral powers?

That Christianity has supplied us with additional and most constraining motives to the fulfilment of our religious and moral duties, is commonly believed by Christians, and need not now be insisted upon. What we are concerned to establish, is, that it is this belief of the practical design of the Gospel-this persuasion of its use and purpose as a means of reforming and sanctifying the character, or promoting the performance of good works, which St. James assumed to be comprehended in the faith by which we are justified, and to which he pointed the attention of his readers, when he called upon them to show their faith by their works-that it was that persuasion which he looked upon as the nucleus upon which the entire substance of Christian doctrines tended to gather and consolidate; or, more pertinently, as the element which the whole apparatus of the Christian system was

constructed to evolve and bring into action. We do not say that he took for granted that his readers were actually and universally persuaded of the obligation and necessity of personal holiness. Some of them, there is ground to infer, had brought themselves to believe that the moral law had been abrogated as a rule of life, by the satisfaction offered for the violations of it by the Son of God: though we can hardly doubt that the greater portion of them concluded that it had been thereby signally vindicated and upheld, as an immutable standard of duty; besides having been previously explained and enforced in the discourses of our Lord himself. But whatever might have been their opinions on this head, most certain it is that they who perceived in the Gospel nothing more than a declaration of forgiveness through the merits of Jesus Christ-they who did not perceive in it an authoritative rule of life, or permanent standard of duty towards God and towards man, were essentially deficient in the exercise of faith, considered as a conviction of the judgment only, and distinct from its influence as a principle of action.

"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Now what part of the word of God can a man be accused

66

of hearing and not doing, believing and not practising, but the precepts which it contains, and which it so solemnly warns, and so graciously exhorts us to obey? Any one, therefore, who should hold himself exonerated by the Gospel from obedience to commandments and prohibitions of a practical nature, would not only fall under censure as not being a doer of the word," but would be essentially deficient as an intelligent "hearer of the word." He could not be accurately said to possess even that faith which, being without works or alone, St. James pronounces to be dead, as the body is dead without the spirit. He would be wanting in a principal member of the mere carcase of the faith by which we are justified.

"For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed."* In these words, the Apostle most obviously directs our atten

Ch. i. 23-26.

tion to the Gospel as a resplendent mirror of duty; and, accordingly, rebukes the man who, when he has perceived in it a distinct reflexion of the defects and blemishes in his character, immediately forgets it, and, consequently, continues as heedless of his doings, and as far from repentance, as before; and at the same time commends the man, who not only acknowledges the Gospel as a rule of conduct, but studiously consults it for his guidance, and regulates his life by its precepts. The Apostle, moreover, designates the Gospel the perfect law of liberty, because in the sincere and earnest, though imperfect obedience of its precepts, the conscience reposes on the mercy of our Judge: because it includes in its singular and most gracious constitution, a full absolution of our guilt, abundant help to our infirmities, and even an everlasting reward: because it lightens inexpressibly the universal bond of subjection to the Supreme Being, by an assurance of his plenteous forgiveness, the privilege of access to him even with a filial confidence, and the forethought of eternal satisfaction in his presence: thus emancipating us as moral and accountable creatures, by qualifying us for the acceptable service of God, and by refreshing

« PreviousContinue »