2. Purity of precepts. In the Christian religion all moral duties are advanced and heightened to their greatest perfection : Ps. cxix. 96, ' The commandment is exceeding broad,' of a vast extent and latitude, comprising every motion, thought, and circumstance. The heathens contented themselves with a shadow of duty. The apostle saith. Pom. ii. 15, that tp-yov vofxov, ' the work of the law, was Avritten upon their hearts ; ' that is, they had a sense of the outward work, and a sight of the surface of the commandment. They made conscience to abstain from gross acts of sin, and to perform outward acts of piety and devotion, as sacrifice and babbling of hymns and prayers to their gods. All their wisdom was to make the life plausible, to refrain themselves ; as it is said of Haman, when his heart boiled with rancour and malice against Mordecai, Esther v. 10, ' Haman refrained him- self.' So Lactantius proveth against them that they had not a true way of mortification, and were not spiritual enough in their appre- hensions of the law : Hupiirdia eoruni 'plcruinijne abscondit viiia, non ahscindit — all tlicir wisdom was to hide a lust, not to quench a lust; or rather to prevent the sin, not to check tlic lust. But now our holy religion doth not only forbid sins, but lusts : 1 Peter ii. 11, ' Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts.' Babylon's brats (as we showed before) ]jy a holy murder must be dashed against the stones. The precepts are exact, commanding love, not only to friends, but enemies. The law is spiritual, and
JaS. I. 18.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 123
therefore in all points perfect : Ps. xix. 7, ' The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ;' that is, not only guiding the offices of the exterior man, but piercing to the thoughts, the first motions of the heart ; we have a perfect law.
3. The sureness of the principles of trust. One of the choicest respects of the creature to the Godhead is trust and dependence. And trust, being the rest and quiet of the soul, must have a sure bottom and foundation. Now stand upon the ways, and survey all the reli- gions in the world, and you will find no foundation for trust but in the gospel, refer it to any object, trusting in God for a common mercy, trusting in God for a saving mercy.
[1.] For a common mercy. There are no such representations of God to the soul as in the gospel. The Gentiles had but loose and dark thoughts of God, and therefore are generally described by this character, ' Men without hope,' 1 Thes, iv. 13. I remember when our Saviour speaketh against carking and anxiousness about outward supports, he dissuadeth thus : ' Take no thought what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or what ye shall put on, for after these things seek the Gentiles,' Mat. vi. 31, 32, implying such solicitude to be only excusable in heathen who had no sure principles ; but you that know providence and the care of a heavenly Father, should not be thus anxious. It is true, the heathens had some sense of a deity ; they had TO r^vaxTTov rov deov, some knowledge of the nature of God, Rom. i. 20 ; but the apostle saith in the next verse, that ' they were vain, iv BiaX.oylcTfxoi'?, in their imaginations,' that is, in their practical infer- ences and discourses ; when they came to represent God as an object of trust, and to form practical thoughts and apprehensions of his majesty, there they were vain and foolish. But now in the gospel God is represented as a fit object of trust, and therefore the solemn and purest part of Christian worship is faith ; and it is judiciously observed by Luther, Id agit tola scriptura, ut credamus Deum esse miseri- cordem— it is the design of the whole scripture to bring the soul to a steady belief and trust ; therefore the psalmist, when he speaketh of God's different administrations in the world and in the church, when he cometh to his administrations in the church, he saith, Ps. xciii. 5, ' The testimonies of the Lord are sure.' God deals with us upon sure principles, though he hath discovered himself to the world only in loose attributes.
[2.] For saving mercies ; and indeed that is the trial of all reli- gions ; that is best Avhich giveth the soul a sure hope of salvation : Jer. vi. IG, God biddeth them ' stand upon the ways, and see, and ask for the good old way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls ; ' intimating, they should choose that for the best religion which yieldeth most peace of conscience. Now, there are three things that trouble the soul — our distance from God, our dread of angry jus- tice, and a despair of retaining comfort with a sense of duty ; and therefore, ere the conscience can have any solid rest and quiet, there must be three matches made, three couples brought together — God and man, justice and mercy, comfort and duty, all these must mutually embrace and kiss each other.