poffefs fuch happy cir 13 For this collection cumstances, as fhall en- will be a means of their able you to perform glorifying God for your every benevolent office--profeffed attachment to a difpofition this, which the gospel of Chrift, and occafions many grateful for your benevolent conacknowledgments to be tribution to them and paid to the fupreme pa- to others. rent. 12 For this charitable 14 You will also fe cure a fhare in their contribution, with which prayers, and the first we are entrusted, doth place in their affections, not only alleviate the on account of that exdiftreffes of the indigent ceeding liberal generoChristians, but will caufefity you have expreffed the most devout and fer- towards them. vent thanksgivings to 15 Thanks be to God immenfe for his ineffable benig nity! God from numbers. SECT. VI. Remarks on St. JAMES as a writer. T was a fevere reflection which Luther paffed IT on St. James, but which he afterwards retracted, that his Epiftle was not really worth a ftraw in respect of the other epistles, and did by no means breathe the evangelical fpirit. This rash and petulant animadverfion of the Reformer took its rife from the apprehended notion of this Apoftle's contradi&ting St. Paul in the doctrine of Juftification. But undoubtedly every serious, intelligent and impartial reader, after a careful and devout perufal, will pronounce this, one of the moft elegant, pleafing, pathetic, inftructive and ufeful epiftles in the facred volume. One cannot rife from reading it without feeling one's heart better, and one's affections more strongly disposed to every good word and work-to every good word, because he fathfully represents the numerous and pernicious evils that ruin the peace and happiness of society from an unguarded licentiousness in Speaking and to every good work, because - the * Sancti Jacobi Epiftola, refpectu horum, inquit Lutherus, eft verè ftraminea epiftola, neque enim indolem Evangelicam arguit. Wetstein. N. Test. zd vol. p. 658. That Luther retracted this cenfure, fee Blackwall's facred Claf fics, ift vol. p. 301. Not. Edit, 12m0, the genuineness of our chriftian profeffion, and our final acceptance with God, are folely dependant on our practical holiness. The ftile hath all that beautiful and elegant fimplicity which fo distinguishingly marks the facred claffics. The diction is very pure, chafte, and correct-the periods are smooth and perfpicuous-the compofition is elegantly concife and fententious-and the fentiments are noble and inftructive, moral and useful, and in every respect worthy an Apostle. The divine worth and excellence of this Epiftle infinitely transcends every eulogy that human imagination can dictate, or human language utter. He, who makes the inftructions of this Epiftle the great rule of his daily life, and the amiable directory of his affections and heart, will be what God and Jefus defigned he should be. There are many figurative descriptions and allufions in this beautiful Epiftle that are truly claffical, finely conceived and pleasingly expreffed, The following are distinguished paffages-In the first chapter he fays: That the rich man and his riches are as tranfient and momentary as a precarious fhort-lived flower-for the fun arifes, attains his meridian, darts his fcorching beams upon it, its nutriment is exhaufted, its ftem is parched and dried, its beauteous variegated leaves languish and drop, and its once vivid colours are loft for ever-Thus fading and tranfitory is the rich man and his riches-Every blef fing fing we enjoy, and every distinguished felicity we tafte, is derived from a celestial source, and descends to us from the great parent of light, who emits from himself a moft pure and permanent radiance, fubject to no variation, liable to no obfcurity, or the leaft diminution. "The terms in this paffage, fays * Mr. Blackwall, are exactly proper and astronomical, according to the appearances of things, and the common notions of mankind. Upon this appearance, and received opinion, the fun, the prince of the planetary heavens, has his parallaxes or changes, appears different in the eaft, in his meridian height, and decline to the weft. He has his annual departures from us, which are the folftices or тpomαι: according to these departures he cafts different fhades. But God is the unchangeable fun that does not rife or fet, come nearer to, or go farther from, any part or space of the universe, an eternal unapproachable light without any variation, eclipfe, or mixture of fhade." It is a very beautiful, apt, expreffive, and ftriking metaphor, where he compares a careless bearer, a mere nominal profeffor of religion, and not a practical obferver of it, to a man, who gazes upon his reflected image in a mirror-he takes a tranfient furvey of his person, mixes again with the world, and the form and features, he hath just been fondly admiring, are inftantly loft to his remembrance. Blackwall's facred Claffics, vol. 1. p. 301. 12mo. Our Our vain and foolish prepoffeffions în favour of dress and external appearance, and our criminal contempt of those who are meanly apparelled, even at places of religious worship, are in a lively and spirited manner expofed in the following paffage. My fellow chriftians, let not your profeffion of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our glo. rious governor, be accompanied with partiality and perfonal prepoffeffions.-For should there enter into your affembly a person arrayed in a magnificent and fplendid drefs, with a brilliant diamond sparkling on his hand; and should there enter at the fame time a man in a mean and fordid habit-your eyes being inftantly attracted with the luftre of this fuperb veft, should you immediately introduce the perfon thus fumptuously habited into the best feat-but turning to the poor man, contemptuously fay to him: Stand you there-or-fit down here under my footftool Is not this a flagrant partiality in you-is not this a criminal conduct, which your minds at the fame time generoufly condemn ?-A finer paffage can. not be produced from the most elegant of the Greek and Roman authors, than this writer's beautiful and striking reprefentation of the great importance of governing the tongue, and the infinite mischiefs that garrulity and evil-fpeaking produce among mankind. It is conceived in the true claffic tafte, See chap iii. 3-10. The brevity and uncertainty of human life is very pathetically and beau tifully |