imperative on us to cherish the sense of our duty towards Himself and our fellow-creatures, and to apply our earnest and persevering endeavours to obey that commandment which is unchangeably holy, just, and good? Nay -is it not a peremptory dictate of our reason, and one borne out and pressed upon us by the prevailing language of the Scriptures, that God has made it incumbent on us to confess our demerit, and encouraged and commanded us to confide in the sacrifice of Christ for the expiation of our sins, for the specific purpose of working a deeper conviction of our obligation to serve him in well-doing, in all rectitude towards Himself and our fellowcreatures? Most certain it is, that the writings of St. Paul, no less than those of St. James, forbid us to conclude that a disclaimer of our own desert, and a dependence on the merits of Christ for justification, however essential a part, is the whole or completion of that faith which is accepted for righteousness. We have already seen that a practical conviction of the duty and necessity of personal holiness, must have been comprehended in his idea of faith, as the instrument of justification. But more than this-he instructs us that the purpose of God, in the constitution of the Gospel, was to renew that conviction; to fix it more deeply in the mind of the believer; and, moreover, to imbue him with the power to exemplify it in an active and ardent cultivation of moral excellence.* He teaches us to regard the sacrifice of the Son of God as the basis of our liberty and encouragement in the obedience of divine commandments. He alleges the love of God in the redemption of the world as a constraining motive to devote our lives to his service and honour. But he does not exhort us to holiness as a debt and expression of our gratitude only, as if the heart of man were universally, and at all times, most powerfully affected by the goodness of God, and stood in need of no other incentive to the fulfilment of his known will; or as if the gift of justification were offered and ensured to the sinner, whether he receive it in thankfulness or otherwise whether he be careful to derive from the mercy of God a motive to obedience of his commandments or not. He seconds his most affecting appeal to our gratitude by an our hopes and Heb. ix. 14. equally urgent application to *Titus ii. 14. fears. He beseeches us that we "receive not the grace of God in vain."* He warns us to beware lest we fall short of entering that eternal rest which God has promised to his people; lest we turn a deaf ear to the Son of God, and incur a "sorer punishment" than the despisers of Moses. On the whole, it is assumed by St. Paul, and the tenor of his epistles admonishes us, that God has judged fit and ordained that the efficacy of faith to justify shall depend upon-shall be inseparably connected with its efficacy in purifying the principles of our conduct; in inducing us to obey his commandments; in actuating us to the performance of good works;-in other words, that a man shall not be justified by faith alone, but as St. James has taught us, by faith together with works. Such, we conceive, is a just construction of the doctrine of St. Paul, and so clearly is his language reconcileable with that of St. James. We have only to bear in mind that St. Paul, in declaring that we are justified by faith without the works of the law, addressed himself to men who sought justification on the ground of their own fulfilment of the law, or without faith * 2 Cor. vi. 1. in the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ:that great ordinance of divine wisdom, so essential to illustrate the justice and mercy of God in the absolution of the sinner; to humble and abase the pride of man, and to affect him with a just sense of his guilt and unworthiness; as well as needful to penetrate his obduracy, to encourage his repentance, and, not unfrequently, to save him from despair. St. James, however, expostulated with persons who indeed expected justification in virtue of their faith in the merits of Jesus Christ, but forgot or would not perceive would not be feelingly and practically persuaded, that the whole scheme of our redemption through a Mediator was designed to establish the divine law in the conscience, and to inspire us with the love of God, which is "that we keep his commandments."*—Be it our concern then, by divine assistance, to unite a profound sense of the grace and mercy of God in our salvation, with a conviction, no less profound and influential, of the great practical purpose for which his mercy has been so signally, so wonderfully displayed: receiving in its full import, in its whole spirit, the following declaration of St. Paul :-" By 1 John v. 3. |