220 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. II. 12.
<;racc. So that you see we ou^lit to look to tlie law's utmost, though we be not judged by the law'.s rigour. Failings not allowed are par- doned, and weaknesses passed by ; the obedience required of us being not that of servants, but children : Mai. iii. 17, ' I will spare them, as a man s]iareth his only son.'
[2.] We are IVeed from the curse and condemnation. The law may condemn the adiom, it cannot condemn the person. It judgeth actions according to their quality, but it hath no power over the per- son. So we are said to be ' dead to the law,' Gal. ii. 19, and the law to us. Gal. iv. 6, and therefore the apostle saith, ovhev KaruKpitxa, ' There is not one condemnation to them that are in Christ,' Rom. viii. 1. The curse may be proposed to a believer, but it cannot take hold of a believer. Not only colts, but horses already broken, need a bridle.
[3.] We are freed from the curse and irritation of the law : Rom. vii., ' Sin took occasion fiom the commandment.' Carnal hearts grow worse for a restraint, as waters swell and rage when the course is stopped. The very prohibition is an occasional })ro vocation ; but to a gracious heart it is motive enough to a duty, because God willeth it.
[4.] We are freed from bondage and terrors. By natural men duties are done servilely, and out of slavish principles : ' We have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear,' Rom. viii. 15. The great prin- ciple in the Old Testament, when the dispensation was more legal, was fear. Therefore it is said, ' The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,' Prov. ix. ; and ' the whole duty of man is to fear God, and keep his commandments,' Eccles. xii. 13. Fear is represented as the great principle of duty and worship in the Old Testament, as suitable to that dispensation. But in the New we read that ' love constraineth,' 2 Cor. v. 14 ; that love ' keepeth the commandments,' 1 John v. 2, &c. To the old world God more discovered his will, to us his grace ; and therefore our great constraint is to arise from love and sweetness.
Use. It showeth us the happiness of those which are in Christ : the law to a believer is a law of liberty ; to anotlier it is the law of bondage and death. We may ' serve him without fear,' Luke i. 57, that is, without slavisli fear. Beasts are urged with goads, and things without life haled witli cart-ropes ; but Christians are led by sanctified affections, motives of grace, and considerations of gratitude. Oh ! look to yourselves, then, whether you be in Christ or no. How sweet is this, when we are ' free for righteousness,' and do not comj)lain of the commandment, but of sin, and the transgression is looked upon as a bondage, rather than duty ! The same apostle that groaned under the body of death, delighted in the law of the Lord in the inward man, Rom. vii. God's restraints are not a bondage, but our own corru})tions. And again, how sweet is tliis, when the command givetli us a warrant, and love a motive, and we can come before God as children, not as hirelings !
Obs.2. That we shall })e judged by the law at the last day; see Rom. ii. 12, ' As many as have sinned in tlie law shall be judged by the law.' The apostle's drift is to prove that all men out of Christ are under a condemnation, whether they had a law })romulged or a law inbred ; a law written in tables of stone, as the Jews ; or in tables
JaS. IL 12.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 221
of tlie heart, as the Gentiles. All are judged according to the decla- rations of his will that God hath made to them : they that have gospel by gospel, or 'the law of faith,' Eom. iii. 31, 'The words that I have spoken, shall judge them at the last day,' John xii. 48 ; they that have only the law of nature, by the law natural ; they that had the law written, by the law of tables ; believers, by the law of liberty, — Christ's obedience shall be put upon their score. How- ever their actions are brought to be scanned by a law and rule, their faith shall be judged and approved by their works, which, though they be not the causes of glory, yet they are the evidences : as motion is not the cause of life, but the effect and token of it. That works are brought into judgment appeareth by that scheme. Mat. XXV. 35, So Rev. xx, 12, ' The books were opened, and every man was judged according to his works.' The judge of the world will show that he doth rightly. The works of the wicked are produced as the merit of their ruin ; the works of the godly, as evidences of glory : and therefore the apostle, when he speaketh of the process of God with the godly and wicked, he noteth the reward and the recompense of the godly in a different term and phrase : Rom. vi. 23, ' The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.' The works of the wicked are produced to show the equity of their wages ; the works of the godly, to declare their interest in his gift. Well, then, if the law be the rule of judgment, then let it be so now. If your confidence will not stand before the word, it will not stand before Christ at his appearing. We might anticipate and prevent the sentence of that day if we would go to the law and to the testimony. This is usual in experience, that persons the more ignorant, the more presuming ; and men that contemn and neglect the means of grace have highest hopes. The reason is, because they cherish a confidence which the word would soon confute ; and therefore, out of a secret consciousness of their own guilt, shun that way of trial : ' They come not to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved,' John iii. 20. Oh ! if you dare not stand before the word now, as it is opened by a minister, what will you do when it is opened by Christ? Therefore when the word reproveth, regard it with all reverence and fear : This word judgeth me now, and it will judge me at the last day. Many fret at the light ; as the Ethiopians once a year solemnly curse the sun. Oh ! but how will they gnash the teeth when this word shall be brought against them at the coming of Christ in the clouds !