Jam. ii. 24. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified,
and not by faith only.
CERTAINLY, of all the questions that can occupy the human mind, the first and greatest is, " How shall man be just before Goda?" 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.
a Job ix. 2.
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 man's mortality : but, if the argument shewed, that the conclusion referred to his soul alone, the con- clusion would be found perfectly consistent with an apparently opposite position, namely, that man is a mortal being. In like manner, if the Apostle's argu- ment in the preceding context be candidly examined, there will be found no real inconsistency between the deduction contained in the text, and an apparently opposite deduction which may be founded on pre- mises altogether different.
Let us consider then, I. The Apostle's argument —
The first thing to be inquired is, Whence the
argument arose ? or, What was the occasion of it ?
[St. James was reproving an evil which obtained to a very great extent among the Church in his day ; namely, the shewing partiality to the richer members, whilst the poorer were treated with supercilious contempt, and harassed with the most flagrant acts of oppression b. Now, as this was directly contrary to the whole spirit of Christianity, he introduced his reproof with these words; " My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons0." Now these words, duly noticed, will give a clue to the whole. " Have not the faith of oar Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons :" hold not the true
FAITH IN SO ERRONEOUS AND UNWORTHY A MANNER. He
then proceeds to shew, that a faith productive of no better conduct than that, will never justify, " never save," the sould: for that it is a dead faith, and not a living one, a mere carcass, and not a living bodye.]
The next thing we have to do is, to trace the steps of his argument —
b ver. 2 — 6. c ver. 1. <* ver. 14. e ver. 26.