be saved ? and Whether all the faith whereon he builds his confidence, be not a nullity, and a delusion? " What doth it profit, my Brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith, suck a faith as that, save him'?"
He then proceeds to sliew how vain any man's pretences to love would be, if it were as inoperative as this faith. " If a brother or sister be naked, and be destitute of daily food ; and one of you say unto them. Depart in peace, be ye warmed, and be ye filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body ; what doth it profit''?" Could that person be said to possess any real love? or would such a love as that be approved and rewarded by God ? Certainly not. " Even so then," says he, "faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone ' :" and any person before whom you might boast of such a faith as that, might justly reply, *' Shew me thy faith without thy works, (which you can never do:) and I will shew thee my faith by my works'";" which is the only test to which such pretensions can be re- ferred. Nay more, such a faith as that is no better than the faith of devils. " The devils believe that there is one God : and theij tremble;" but they do not love. So you may believe that Jesus Christ is a Saviour; and you may be partially affected by that persuasion : but, if you do not Ivve, your faith is no better than theirs : and, by pretending to a living and saving faith, when you have nothing but a dead and inopera- tive faith, you only shew, that you are a " vain," ignorant, and self-deluded " man"."
He now goes on to confirm these assertions by an appeal to the Scriptures themselves. " Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar ? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect"?" Abraham believed in the promised Seed, " in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed." But what kind of a faith was his ? Was it unproductive of holy obedience ? No : it led him to obey the hardest command that was ever given to mortal man, even to slay, and to reduce to ashes upon the altar, that very son, to whom the promises were made, and through whom alone they could ever be accomplished : so that his works evinced the truth and sincerity of his faith ; and proved itidis- putablij, that he was accepted of his God. His faith existed before : but now it operated ; and " was made perfect by the works which it produced ;' just as a tree is then only in a state of complete perfection, when it is laden with its proper fruits. The fruit indeed does not add to the vegetative power that produced it ; but it evinces that power, and
displays ' ver. H. " ver. \5, 10\ ' ver. 17.
•" ver. 18. " ver. 19, 20. " ver. 21, 22.