material world, to suppose that the most exalted conception of the all-sufficiency of God, or the most humiliating view of the helplessness of his unassisted creatures, is incompatible with their obligation to a proper activity in the sphere and office assigned them. God indeed is infinitely powerful, but still the weakest of created things are not unworthy to bear a part in that extensive and subordinate agency through which the fiats of Omnipotence are instrumentally fulfilled. God is infinitely wise, yet it does not therefore follow that all the inferior orders of intelligence are merely a blank in existence. God is infinitely glorious,-yet even the meanest flower of the field can perform its appointed share in displaying the wisdom of its Maker, and the marvellous beauty and skill of his minutest workmanship. The surpassing excellencies of Deity do not, in any case, supersede the exertions and activity of all his creatures in their respective spheres. Not all the inconceivable glories of his immediate presence so completely absorb the eternal mind as to render the pageantry, inferior though it be, of our surrounding system, -with the brightness of its obscurer sun, and the marvellous courses of its humbler planets,-of none effect in making up the wonders of his creation, and completing the sum of his infinite perfections. Nor do the faultless

obedience, the unwavering faith, the unbounded charity and love of the spirits of the just that attend about his throne, cast into such utter insignificance the imperfect efforts of the inhabitants of this lower world, as to make nugatory the unworthy offering of their prayers, or obstruct the communication of his mercy in return.

Those, therefore, who have been tempted to suppose that—because God is inconceivably perfect, and man by nature is utterly lost-therefore we must subside into complete and hopeless inaction, have adopted a principle which, if carried to its full extent, would go to the stoppage of all the wheels in the machinery of causation, and tend to arrest the tide of vitality which flows through the living universe. And they have, moreover, forgotten a great moral which the scriptures expressly inculcate, and fallen into the error of that abject and dispirited servant in the parable, who said, "Lord, I know thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed; and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth; lo, there thou hast that is thine."*

Yet, easy as it is to condemn fallacious extremes of opinion on the doctrine of faith and

* Matthew xxv. 25.

works, it must be acknowledged that there are some delicate shades of distinction, extremely difficult to trace, as to the exact point at which the confines of the divine influence terminate, and the sphere of human exertion begins. On the utter inefficiency of man's unassisted efforts, the scriptures leave us not a moment's doubt. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, our sufficiency is of God;"* "No man can come unto me except my Father which hath sent me draw him ;"-"By grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast;"-Such language as this is not to be mistaken; and, lest we should conceive the most distant probability of our receiving our reward of "debt," and not of grace" alone, we are further assured that "in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing;"§ and, that " every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."|| Nor must the principle be ever overlooked in enquiries on this important subject, that even faith itself has no merit of its own; that at the very best it is only † John vi. 44. Eph. ii. 8.

*2 Cor. iii. 5.

§ Rom. vii. 18.

| James i. 17.

the instrument and not the cause of justification; that works, if they justify at all, can only testify our faith, and make us "accounted righteous" in the eyes of our fellow men; and that the most triumphant saint that ever enjoyed the intimate favor and presence of his God, through Christ's atoning blood alone obtained access by one Spirit" there, and by the title of Christ's merits alone can expect his eternal inheritance hereafter.

r

But when, in contrast to these strong and remarkable expressions, we bring together the multitude of considerations which, it is not too much to say, constitute the general practical purport and tenor of scripture, -the moral of all its history, the deduction from its most speculative doctrines, prompting to vigilance, activity, and exertion, it must be acknowledged, I repeat, that there arise some apparent difficulties as to the relative efficacy of the supposed contending principles concerned with our justification, which well deserve a particular enquiry, and which, perhaps, may be partially elucidated in a humble attempt to interpret the meaning of the text.

I. And first let us enquire into the supposed discrepancies between St. Paul and St. James. Now it appears to be reasonably conjectured that the principal part of St. James's Epistle was written purposely, not to contradict, but simply

to explain certain passages in the writings of his brother apostle, which, even in those days, had been by some misguided persons very imperfectly understood. And the origin of those mistakes can be easily accounted for. One of the great

and ruling principles, you will recollect, which St. Paul endeavoured, throughout his Epistles, to illustrate, was the relation which subsisted between what is called the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace; or, in other words, to prove the superior and transcendent value of that second covenant-gradually developed for ages, and completed by the gospel,-which declared that through the merits of Christ alone, and not by the works of the law, could justification be obtained. It was necessary for him, therefore, in order to substantiate his proofs of the excellence of the gospel-not only to shew his converts that the obligation of the law had passed away, and that all the intricate machinery of its rites and observances had lost their efficacy before the superior perfection of the more searching principles of the gospel,-but also to state and illustrate the important truth that the works of man in general were never sufficient, after the fall, of themselves to please God, and could not even pretend to any kind of merit in his sight. And so he proves,-which he does especially,