other infirmities, of which you, my dear brethren, have had too many examples in your own lives in time past, and yet have too much experience in the tempers of your hearts every day. Infirmities of this kind do not answer the black description which St. James gives of the offence mentioned in the text. A good man, who is subject to these frailties, far from approving the sad necessity, that carries him off from his duty, deplores it. In him they are not conclusions from principles, laid down with full consent; they are sad effects of that imperfection, which God had thought proper to leave in our knowledge and holiness, and which will remain as long as we continue to languish life away in this valley of tears. To say all in one word, they are rather an imperfection essential to nature, than a direct violation of the law. 2. We ought not to number momentary faults among the offences, of which it is said, Whosoever committeth one is guilty of a violation of the whole law. Where is the regenerate man, where is the saint, where is the saint of the highest order, who can assure himself, he shall never fall into some sins? Where is the faith so firm as to promise never to tremble at the sight of racks, stakes, and gibbets? Where is that christian heroism, which can render a man invulnerable to some fiery darts, with which the enemy of our salvation sometimes assaults us; and, (what is still more unattainable by human firmness) where is that christian heroism which can render a man invulnerable to some darts of voluptuousness, which strike the tenderest parts of nature, and ex cite those passions which are at the same time the most turbulent and the most agreeable? A believer falls into such sins only in those sad moments in which he is surprised unawares, and in which he loses in a manner the power of reflecting and thinking. If there remain any liberty of judgment amidst the phrenzy, he employs it to recal his reason, which is fleeing; and to arouse his virtue, that sleeps in spite of all his efforts. All chained as he is by the enemy, he makes efforts, weak indeed, but yet earnest, to disengage himself. The pleasures of sin, even when he most enjoys them, and while he sacrificeth his piety and innocence to them, are imbittered by the inward remorse that rises in his regenerate soul. While he delivers himself up to the temptation and the tempter, he complains, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Rom. vii. 24. When the charm has spent its force, when his fascinated eyes recover their sight, and he sees objects again in their true point of light, then conscience reclaims its rights; then he detests what he had just before admired; then the cause of his joy becomes the cause of his sorrow and terror; and he prefers the pain, anguish, and torture of repentance, before the most alluring attractives of sin. 3. We will venture one step further. We affirm, that gusts of involuntary passions ought not to be included in the number of sins of which St. James saith, Whosoever offendeth in one point, he is guilty of all. God placeth us in this world as in a state of trial. We are all born with some passions, which it is our duty to attack, and mortify; but from which we shall never be able to free ourselves entirely. The soul of one is united to a body, naturally so modified as to incline him to voluptuousness. Another soul has dispositions naturally inclining it to avarice, pride, envy, or jealousy. It is in our power to resist these passions; but to have, or not to have them, when we come into the world, doth not depend on us. We ought not always to judge of our state by the enemy, whom we have to encounter: but by the vigilance with which we resist him. In spite of some remains of inclination to pride, we may become humble, if we endeavour sincerely and heartily to become so. In spite of natural inclinations to avarice, we may become generous by endeavouring to become so, and so of the rest. Involuntary passions, when we zealously endeavour to restrain them, ought to be considered as exercises of our virtue prescribed by our Creator; and not as criminal effects of the obstinacy of the creature. The sins, into a com mission of which they beguile us, ought always to humble us; indeed they would involve us in eternal misery, were we not recovered by repentance after having fallen into them: but neither they, nor transient offences, nor daily frailties ought to be reckoned among those sins, of which St. James says, he who offendeth in one point, is guilty of all. The sins of which the apostle speaks, are preceded by the judgment of the mind, accompanied with mature deliberation, and approved by conscience. Thus we have divested the text of one vague meaning to which it may seem to have given occasion. But in what sense may it be affirmed of any sin, that he who offendeth in one point, is guilty of all? The nature of the subject must answer this second question, and enable us to reject the false senses, that are given to the proposition of our apostle. It is plain, St. James neither meant to establish an equality of sins, nor an equality of punishments. It is evident, that as sins are unequal among men, so justice requires an inequality of punishment. The man who adds murder to hatred, is certainly more guilty than he who restrains his hatred, and trembles at a thought of murder. He whose hatred knows no bounds, and who endeavours to assuage it with murder, will certainly be punished more rigorously than the former. What then was the apostle's meaning? He probably had two views, a particular and a general view. The particular design might regard the theological system of some Jews, and the general design might regard the moral system of too inany christians. Some Jews, soon after the apostle's time, and very likely in his days,* affirmed, that God gave a great many precepts to men, not that he intended to oblige them to the observance of all, but that they might have an opportunity of obtaining salvation by observing any one of them; and it was one of their maxims, that he who diligently kept one command, was thereby freed from the necessity of observing the rest. Agreeable to this notion, a famous Rabbit expounds these words in Hosea, Take away all iniquity, * See Whitby on James ii. 2. and give good, that is, according to the false notion of our expositor, pardon our sins, and accept our zeal for one precept of thy law. What is still more remarkable, when the Jews choose a precept, they usually choose one that gives the least check to their favorite passions, and one that is least essential to religion, as some ceremonial precept. This, perhaps, is what Jesus Christ reproves in the Pharisees and Scribes of his time, Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone, Matt. xxiii. 23. Perhaps these words of our Saviour, may be parallel to those of St. James. The apostle had been recommending love, and at length he tells the Jews, who, in the style of Jesus Christ, omitted mercy, that whosoever should keep the whole lan, and yet offend in this one point, would be guilty of all. But, as we observed just now, St. James did not intend to restrain what he said to love. If he had a particular view to the theological system of some Jews, he had also a general view to the morality of many christians, whose ideas of devotion are too contracted. He informs them, that a virtue incomplete in its parts, cannot be a true virtue. He affirms, that he who resolves in his own mind to sin, and who forces his conscience to approve vice while he commits it, cannot in this manner violate one single article of the law without enervating the whole of it. A man cannot be truly chaste without being |