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SERMON 1.

The Necessity of Universal Obedience.

JAMES ii. 10.

Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

MY BRETHREN,

WERE I obliged to give a title to this epistle, from which I have taken my text, to distinguish it from the other books of our sacred canon, I would call it the paradoxes of St. James. It should seem, the apostle had no other design in writing than that of surprizing his readers by unheard-of propositions. In the first chapter he subverts that notion of religion, which is generally received both in the world and the church. To adore the God of heaven and earth, to receive his revelation, to acknowledge his Messiah, to partake of his sacraments, to burn with zeal for his worship, this is usually called religion. No, says St. James, this is not religion; at most this is only a small part of it: "Religion consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and in keeping himself unspotted from the world," ver. 27. In the second chapter he seems to take pains to efface the grand character of a christian, and of

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christianity itself, and to destroy this fundamental truth of the gospel, "that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," Rom. iii. 28. "No," says he, "man is not justified by faith only; Abraham our father was justified by works," chap. ii. 24. 21. and all christians are justified by works. In another place, St. James seems to place all religion in some minute and comparatively inconsiderable articles, or, what comes to much the same, to teach, that the omission of some comparatively small duty renders the most pure and solid piety of no account. Levity of conversation is one of these articles. How different, my brethren! is the morality of the scriptures from the morality of the world! We often hear high encomiums of some people in company. Observe that man, say they, what a pattern of piety is he! The church doors are hardly opened before he rushes into his seat with eagerness and transport. In approaching the Lord's table he discovers by every look and gesture a heart all inflamed with divine love. When his shepherds were smitten, and the sheep scattered, the most difficult sacrifices became easy to him. Country, family, titles, riches, he left all with pleasure for the sake of following the bloody steps of Jesus Christ in his suffering. He can be reproved for no more than one little inadvertence, that is, he has a levity of conversation. But what says St. James of this man, who seems to have a right of precedence in a catalogue of saints? What does he say of this man, so diligent to attend public worship, so fervent at the Lord's supper, so zealous for religion? He says, this man has no religion at all; "If

any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, this man's religion is vain,” chap. i. 26.

But without attending to all the paradoxes of St. James, let us attend to this in our text.

Here is a principle that seems more likely to produce despair in our hearts than to promote virtue; a principle which seems to aim at no less than the exclusion of the greatest saints on earth from heaven, and to oblige Moses, Elias, David, Paul, and other such eminent men to exclaim, "Who then can be saved!" Matt. xix. 25. This principle is, that to sin against one article of the divine laws is to render one's self guilty of a breach of them all. Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of

all.

That you may the better enter into the spirit of our text, we have three sorts of reflections to propose to you. By the first we intend to fix the meaning of our apostle's proposition, and to clear it from all obscurity. Our second class of reflections will be applied to enforce the sense that we shall give the text. The last will characterise those sinners who live in this dreadful state, who, by habitually offending in one point, render themselves guilty of an universal subversion of the whole law of God; and here we shall direct you how to use the text as a touchstone to discover the truth or falsehood of your faith, the sincerity or hypocrisy of your obedience.

I. Let us fix the sense of our apostle's proposition, and for this purpose let us answer two questions. 1. What kind of sin had St. James in view when

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