sibility of an erroneous application of these Epistles; for the perversity of man's mind will even make the plainest places rough, and the straightest crooked, reversing the divine metaphor of the prophet.* He has therefore in his General Epistle (Chap. ii.) endeavored to obviate it, by the most simple, intelligible, and irresistible explanation and reasoning, which can be conceived; expressly adapted to this particular case. Yet may we actually hear labored efforts to distort and explain away these very clear and decisive instructions of Saint James; so invincible is the disposition of man to twist every thing to his own vain purposes. These efforts are indeed most weak, powerless, and futile to all understanding hearers; and they recoil upon those who make them. For it is quite impossible that they should overturn what is so utterly invincible, unless indeed the hearers be first blinded, unless the erring teachers first "bind the strong man" within us. Yet alas! there are many who are always ready to be thus blinded and bound, and who in weakness or ignorance, yield themselves captive to every persevering assailant, who attacks with sufficient confidence and assumption.

When we bear in mind, that it is against the vain ceremonies and traditions of the Jewish law and customs,—of which many were even absurd and unsupported by any sound authority, and all of which were abrogated by the new covenant or Gospel of Christ,— that the apostles are arguing, we can well comprehend why they reasoned so strenuously and urgently against the works and deeds of that mistaken law, to which the Jews so pertinaciously adhered. The Jewish teachers sought most vehemently to inculcate a reliance on their own ineffectual observances, in opposition to the Christian faith; and therefore the apostles exerted all their energy in repeated arguments, to prove the utter inefficacy of those deeds and works of the law, in which alone the Jews were

* Isaiah xl. 4.

erroneously taught to believe true religion to consist. It is clear that both the writers, and those whom they addressed, understood the apostles, in all their discussions of the law, and deeds and works, to mean nothing but the old Jewish ceremonial law, the observances enjoined by it, and the traditional customs engrafted on it. Of human laws, and good works and moral virtues, in general, not a syllable more is to be found in all the Epistles, than repeated and urgent injunctions for the observance and performance of them, and assurances of reward or condemnation accordingly.

The evident design of the apostles, in their arguments, is to put faith in Christ, and his doctrines, in contradistinction to faith in the law, and the works and performances enjoined by that law; and to teach their disciples to fix their hopes of salvation in the former, rejecting all trust in the vain ceremonies of the latter. They leave it still open to them to seek justification through the true faith, by the aid of righteousness, or good works in general. The zeal of the inspired writers to teach them, that these good works are essential to their hopes of justification, and will be useful to them, is no less conspicuous, than their earnestness to guard them against any confidence in the ceremonial works of the abrogated law of the Mosaic dispensation.

The advocates of the utter worthlessness of good works constantly assume, that those who differ from them, maintain the contrary doctrine,-that good works alone, without faith, are sufficient for justification, and have of themselves sufficient merit to give a title to God's grace. No pretence can be more unwarrantable and unfounded. Nothing can be more remote from the real argument.

The plain position and conclusion, to be drawn from a review of the whole contents of the New Testament, is simply this;-that Faith is the grand and distinguishing qualification required of every Chris

tian, as the foundation of his hopes of eternal salvation;-that good works are also equally necessary, as the accompaniments of his faith;-and that those works, if attended by faith, will be accepted, as entitled to some portion of the favor of God, when we are judged by him; although we can have no hope from such works alone, if we are without faith. How much our best works may weigh in the scale, is quite another question, entirely beyond our knowledge. But we are told on all hands, and by every authority, from Christ himself to the last of his Apostles, that good works will be rewarded.

By these simple deductions, we do not exclude the admission, that God may, and will, elect into his favor, such as he may chuse, without regard to any consideration but his own will. Undoubtedly such a doctrine is supported by the Scriptures. But that is nothing more than the assertion of God's uncontrollable power and wisdom; which he may and will exercise at his own will, and above all the rules which he may be pleased to give for our general guidance. Who may have the blessed lot to be thus elected, is a mysterious secret utterly beyond the possibility of our discovery. We have only to learn what means he has dictated by which his favor is to be sought, and to pursue them obediently, without making vain pretensions to peculiar hopes, above the ordinary lot of our fellows.

But the unrighteous, who have neglected good works, are not left without hope. For it is clear, that there are two modes open to us of adding that help, which is required to our faith; namely, good works and repentance; which repentance necessarily includes future amendment, or it is not repentance.

Our Savior tells us that "just persons need no repentance." The just or virtuous, therefore, through faith, are accepted, their just works giving them that

* Luke, xv. 7.

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advantage over sinners; which is nothing less than saying, that good works and faith are sufficient for acceptance.

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The parable of the prodigal son,* narrated by the same Divine Person, clearly assures us of the two modes of satisfying the duty of good works. To the son who had truly served his father, neither transgressed at any time his commandment," he gives the satisfying assurance+ "Son, thou art ever with me, and all which I have is thine:" whilst the repentant prodigal, returned to his affection and obedience, is joyfully accepted into favor, and cherished in his renewed virtue.

Let us not therefore stultify ourselves and nullify the prayer which our national church has dictated to us, that "plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, we may of God be plenteously rewarded."

ON THE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN

IN REGARD TO HIS CONNECTION WITH THE WORLD
AND WORLDLY AFFAIRS.

Nearly allied to the subject of the foregoing pages, is the doctrine which is sometimes drawn from parts of the Holy Scriptures, that Christians, and especially the ministers of religion, are required to separate themselves absolutely from the world, and from all interest in its concerns; and to devote the whole soul and thoughts, and the whole body and action, to heavenly objects exclusively; and that it is sinful

to give any portion of the mind to worldly pursuits and objects.

One would think that the utter inconsistency of this doctrine, in the extent to which it is often promulgated, with the nature of man and his earthly existence, would make the absurdity of it too plain to admit of its being entertained by any reasonable being. That man, placed in the world, with a capacity fitted and limited to the confines of the scene of his worldly existence, with faculties so peculiarly adapted to it, and so little equal to comprehend any thing greatly above it ;-seeing before him and around him, in every object within the reach of his human senses, proof of the wonderful fitness of every part of the creation, and the equally wonderful government of all earthly things, by the wisdom and care of the Almighty Creator;-contemplating, in every subject from which the ideas of his mind can arise, the visible and abundant proofs of the interest, which that great Creator and God, himself, is pleased to take in the world and worldly concerns;-looking still higher, and beholding in the mysterious truths of his holy religion, in his divine redemption, and in the sacred revelation of the will and laws of God, to guide him in his conduct and thoughts in this his worldly life; -that man, so placed, so surrounded, instructed and guided, for the world, should be intended to separate himself from that world, and refuse to partake in the concerns which necessarily and unavoidably grow out of the scene in which his Creator has placed him, -appears a doctrine too absurd, to be reconcilable with any correct notion of the wisdom of the great Author and Governor of all things. Such a doctrine, if true, must be applicable to all men alike. If then it be adopted and obeyed by all, (as it ought to be, if true,) what is to become of worldly duties and concerns? Man is a social being from nature; dependent upon man, and incapable of any good, but in