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 indisputably, 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 it in full perfection : and so did Abraham's works evince the truth of the faith which previously existed in him, and complete the objects for which it had been bestowed. " And then was fulfilled the Scripture which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness : and he was called, The friend of Godp." The same he illustrates by another instance from Scripture, even that of Rahab, who evinced the truth of her faith, and was accepted in the exercise of it, when at the peril of her life she concealed the Jewish spies, and sent them home in safety to their own campq.
Now from all this he draws, as an unquestionable deduction, that very truth, which in the first instance he had only as- serted ; namely, that persons, whatever degrees of faith they might pretend to, could never be accepted of God, unless their faith wrought by love : " Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only :" for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also1.]
Thus viewed, the argument is clear from beginning to end. That the terms which are used are strong, is certain : but then they may be accounted for from the general drift of the argument, and its immense importance to the Church of God. The Apostles do not measure words and syllables as we are apt to do, but speak in broad unqualified terms. St. Paul had done so on the subject of a sinner's acceptance by faith alone : and St. James does so on the subject of those vain pretences to faith which were made by many who were destitute of good works : but an attention to the scope of their respective arguments will lead us to a just view, both of the terms which
p ver. 23. i ver. 25.
r ver. 24, 26. If ver. 25. were put into a parenthesis, the con- nexion between ver. 24 and ver. 26 would more plainly appear, and the argument stand more full and complete.
f2