The scrutiny which you shall undergo in the last day, so far from being less exact than that of others, will be more strict, in proportion to the advantages you have enjoyed, and the professions you have made". Your acceptance, it is true, will be solely on account of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and suftered for you : but the truth of your faith will be tried by the works it has produced : and according to the measure and quality of them will be your reward. I say then, In all that you say and do, have respect to the future judgment, when " God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart :" and in order to your being approved of God in that day, "walk in love, as Christ has loved you**;" and, whilst you en- deavour to " walk in his stepn" " let the same mind also be in you as was in Christ Jesus'."]
M Pet. iv. 17. " Eph. V. 2. ' Phil. ii. 5.
Jam. ii. 24. Ye see then, how that by works a man is JMstifted^ and not hy faith only.
CERTAINLY, of all the questions that can occupy the human mind, the first and greatest is, ** How shall man be just before God"?" On this subject men have differed from each other, as far as the east is from the west. To this difference the passage before us has not a little contributed. It is therefore most desirable that we enter candidly into the inves- tigation of it, and endeavour to ascertain with all possible precision what is so indispensable to our eternal welfare.
It is obvious, that the words which I have read to you are a deduction from a preceding argument. We ought therefore carefully to examine the argu- ment itself; for, it is only by a thorough knowledge of the premises that we can understand the conclu- sion drawn from them. Suppose that I were, as a conclusion of an argument, to say, ' So then man is an immortal Being ;' if the argument itself were not investigated, you might understand it as a denial of
mans
' Job ix. 2.