II. "they belong to Chrift, fhall in no wife DIS.C. "lose his reward" in that day, when the " merciful shall obtain mercy';" when he who hath not turned away his face from the poor fhall not behold the face of the Lord turned away from him"; when the widow and the fatherlefs fhall be the ableft advocates, and plead with irresistible eloquence in behalf of their kind benefactors, whofe liberality faved them from want and deftruction. For lo! an awful filence, and all the attention of heaven and earth engaged, while from the throne of judgment proceed these gracious words addreffed to the merciful-" I was an hungry, and ye 66 gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was naked, and ye "clothed me-for, inafmuch as ye did it "unto the least of these my brethren, ye "did it unto me. Come therefore, ye bleffed "of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for from the foundation of the you DISC. "nued with me in my temptations; be ye "numbered with my faints in glory ever II. lafting."-Which God grant that we all may be, through the merits and mediation of Chrift Jefus our Lord, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghoft, three perfons and one God, be afcribed, as is moft due, all bleffing, and honour, and glory, and power, now and for evermore. Amen. Luke xxii. 28. DISCOURSE III. WORKS WROUGHT THROUGH FAITH A CON- JAMES II. 24. You fee then, how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. WA AS a difciple of the holy Jefus per- DISC. mitted to carve his own lot, and 111. to choose his employment in the world, he would doubtlefs wish to pafs his days, without ftrife and contention, in the pleafing task of contemplating the love and setting forth the praises of his divine Lord and Master. But this is a felicity referved for us in a better world, and fhall be given to them for whom it is prepared, when the church fhall pass out of her militant into her triumphant ftate. At pre fent 111. 66 DISC. fent she is in an enemy's country; there is a noife of war continually in the camp and every man must have his "fword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night:" every minifter of the gofpel must be armed with the fword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, to combat every error, and put every herefy to flight, that may otherwife take the advantage of those seasons when the church is leaft upon her guard, to affault and hurt the faith. It has indeed been a maxim fometimes laid down, that falfe opinions, if let alone, will die of themselves. But furely the gospel and experience teach us another leffon. If men fleep while the tares are fown, it will coft them many waking hours to root them up when they are grown, befides the great danger there is of rooting up the wheat complicated and entangled with them at the fame time. And if the mafter of the house fhould think it needlefs to extinguish a fire already kindled and infinuating itself among the beams that compofe and fupport the edifice, he may foon be feen bewailing III. wailing his unpardonable negligence over its DISC. ruins. Should it be afked, who are the proper perfons to defend the faith, when it is attacked from time to time, and to ftate the Christian doctrines aright, as often as they are in divers manners misunderstood and perverted; the answer is obviousThey who by the liberality of founders and benefactors are separated from the cares and concerns of the world, that they may attend without distraction upon this thing, and fee, ne quid detrimenti ecclefia capiat. very The folifidian, or antinomian herefy, which afferts, "that man is juftified by faith "without works," and which took it's rife from a misunderstanding and perverfion of fome paffages in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, was one of the first that dif turbed the Chriftian church; infomuch that St. Augustin says, that not only the Epiftle of St. James, but likewise those of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude were written to guard the faithful against it's pernicious influences. F |