DISCOURSE V. St. JAMES, CHAP. i. from VER. 17, to 21. "EVERY GOOD GIFT, AND EVERY PERFECT GIFT, IS FROM ABOVE, 66 66 AND COMETH DOWN FROM THE "FATHER OF LIGHTS, WITH WHOM 66 OWN WILL BEGAT HE US WITH 66 THREN, LET EVERY MAN BE SWIFT TO HEAR, SLOW TO SPEAK, 66 SLOW ΤΟ WRATH: FOR THE "" WRATH OF MAN WORKETH NOT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. "WHEREFORE 66 "WHEREFORE LAY APART ALL 66 FILTHINESS AND SUPERFLUITY 66 OF NAUGHTINESS, AND RECEIVE 66 WITH MEEKNESS THE ENGRAFT66 ED WORD, WHICH IS ABLE TO 66 SAVE YOUR SOULS." A MID the many illustrious evidences with which we are favoured of the Free Grace and Univerfal Love of GOD, is it not aftonishing, that men fhould ever entertain fuch 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 Ifraelites, 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 66 over all his works: that he causeth "his fun to fhine upon the evil and upon the good, and fendeth rain upon "the just and upon the unjuft:" that "he is no refpecter of perfons; but, "in every nation, he that feareth him, " and worketh righteousness, is accepted "of him: that, notwithstanding the grofs darkness which hath prevailed, and ftill prevails, over a very confiderable part of the habitable world, "he hath never left "himself without witness :" that "his VOL. II. F 66 light light hath always fhone in the midst "of this darknefs," and its life-giving beams have perpetually rifen upon the earth for "the healing of the nations :" "that JESUS CHRIST is the fame yefterday, to-day, and for ever:" that as by him GoD originally created man, fo by him alone man can be redeemed: that that "GOD is not willing that any should perish, but that all should "come to repentance," and receive the fullness of redemption from this Univerfal Saviour. These important falutary truths are fummed up in the most concife and expreffive terms by the Bleffed 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 fay, 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 lufts and enticed then "when luft hath conceived, it bringeth "forth fin; and fin, when it is finish ed, bringeth forth death. Do not "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 66 no variablenefs, neither fhadow of turning." Now, without any unnatural force put upon these words, is not this their plain and obvious meaning? Think not, Fellow Chriftians, 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 Purity; it ftands in direct contrariety to F 2 it: |