James 2:26

REFLECTIONS

Oh! for grace, while reading what God the Holy Ghost hath said in this Chapter, in reproving any respect of persons, in his house of prayer; that I may everlastingly keep in view the Lord's pleasure, and so have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, as to regard the rich more than the poor; but to love the Lord's poor with peculiar delight for Jesus's sake; and God's chosen may be my chosen; and the poor of this world, if rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, may be the excellent in whom is all my delight.

Blessed and Eternal Spirit! keep my soul from all error, in the right apprehension of all thy gracious truths. Teach me, Lord, that if it were possible for a man to keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. And, as we have all sinned, and come short of thy glory, never may my soul seek the smallest justification by the deeds of the law.

And I do beseech thee, O Lord, who leadeth thy people unto all truth, that I may so fully learn, from what thou hast here taught the Church, how unprofitable the dead faith of merely acknowledging divine truths, while not living under the influence of them, is before God; that my faith, like the faith of Abraham and Rahab, may be works of faith; in proof, that my profession and practice are in perfect correspondence to each other. Let my soul abhor the thought, and much more the conduct, of professing love to a poor brother or sister, while withholding from them the tokens of that love. And in the higher concerns with my God and Savior, far be it from me, O Lord, to profess, that I know God, but in works deny him! Oh! for grace, while seeking justification before God, upon the sole footing of the Person, blood-shedding, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be found an eminent example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity!