DISCOURSE V.

St. JAMES, CHAP. i. from VER. 17,

to 21.

"EVERY GOOD GIFT, AND EVERY PERFECT GIFT, IS FROM ABOVE, AND COMETH DOWN FROM THE

"FATHER OF LIGHTS, WITH WHOM “IS NO VARIABLENESS, NEITHER

SHADOW OF TURNING. OF HIS
OWN WILL BEGAT HE US WITH

THE WORD OF TRUTH, THAT WE

SHOULD BE A KIND OF FIRST FRUITS OF HIS CREATURES. "WHEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, LET EVERY MAN BE SWIFT TO HEAR, SLOW TO SPEAK, SLOW TO WRATH: FOR THE

66

WRATH OF MAN WORKETH NOT "THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.

" WHEREFORE "WHEREFORE LAY APART ALL "FILTHINESS AND SUPERFLUITY “OF NAUGHTINESS, AND RECEIVE "WITH MEEKNESS THE ENGRAFT"ED WORD, WHICH IS ABLE TO "SAVE YOUR SOULS."

A

MID the many illustrious evidences with which we are favoured of

the Free Grace and Universal Love of God, is it not astonishing, that men should ever entertain such narrow and unworthy conceptions of his Divine Administration, as to confine it to a few individuals of the human race, and thus to degrade the Maker and Lord of the universe to the rank of a mere local and tutelar Deity?

The volume of Nature, the volume of the Gospel, and the volume of our

own

!

own hearts, if we had but eyes to fee them, lie equally unfolded to our view. In each of these, we may read, in the fairest and largest characters, these great and glorious truths: that "the GOD " of Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, the "GOD of the Israelites, the God and "FATHER of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, " is the God and FATHER of the spirits "of all flesh :" that "he hath made "of one blood all nations under Hea"ven: that "his tender mercies are

over all his works: that he causeth "his fun to shine upon the evil and upon the good, and sendeth rain upon "the just and upon the unjust:" that " he is no respecter of persons; but, " in every nation, he that feareth him, " and worketh righteousness, is accepted " of him: that, notwithstanding the gross darkness which hath prevailed, and still prevails, over a very confiderable part of the habitable world, "he hath never left "himself without witness:" that "his

VOL. II.

F

" light

"light hath always shone in the midst " of this darkness," and its life-giving beams have perpetually risen upon the earth for "the healing of the nations :" "that JESUS CHRIST is the same yef"terday, to-day, and for ever:" that as by him GOD originally created man, so by him alone man can be redeemed: that "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should " come to repentance," and receive the fullness of redemption from this Universal Saviour. These important falutary truths are summed up in the most concise and expressive terms by the Blessed Apostle, in the words which I have read to you; the full import of which we shall better apprehend, if we attend to the manner in which they are introduced by the preceding verses.

"Let no man say, when he is tempt"ed, I am tempted of GOD; for GoD "cannot be tempted with evil, neither " tempteth

"tempteth he any man; but every man " is tempted, when he is drawn away "of his own lusts and enticed : then "when lust hath conceived, it bringeth "forth fin; and fin, when it is finish"ed, bringeth forth death. Do not

66

err, my beloved brethren, every Good "Gift, and every Perfect Gift, is from "above, and cometh down from the "Father of Lights, with whom is "no variableness, neither shadow of “ turning."

Now, without any unnatural force put upon these words, is not this their plain and obvious meaning?

Think not, Fellow Christians, that that evil nature which you bring with you into the world, is the nature which GOD originally gave you. It is, in itself, earthly and diabolical: it came not from the Source of Immaculate Pu

rity; it stands in direct contrariety to