SERMON I.*

THE SINS OF MEN NOT CHARGEABLE ON GOD.

JAMES i. 13.

Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil; neither tempteth he any man.

THE word of God frequently teaches us, that a principal hindrance of our embracing Christ's righteousness, is want of a due sense of our own unrighteousness. There is a stupidity in this, as unaccountable in its nature, as it is dangerous in its effects. All men are persuaded, that they have broken the precepts of God's law; it might be expected of course, they should be persuaded also, that they have deserved to suffer the penalty of it: but experience makes it evident, that it is otherwise. All men are convinced that they are sinners; but very few are convinced that they deserve to be miserable. The word of God, which searches the heart, unfolds the secret cause of this. In like manner, men are insensible of their ill deserving; not that they absolutely deny their sins, but that they excuse them: nor is this a new artifice it is as ancient in the world, as sin itself. It is natural for our affections to bias our judgment; and therefore, when sin has polluted the one, no wonder it should pervert the other. The first man on earth was no sooner accused, than, since he could not deny it,

* This sermon was preached about the year 1720, when the Author was minister at Luss.

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he strove to defend it, and heightened his guilt by a presumptuous attempt to extenuate it. We, his off spring, to this day, do not more resemble him in committing sin, than in excusing it, when we have done. Generally, either men do not regret their sins at all, or else regret them as misfortunes, rather than faults, and as deserving pity, rather than punishment. Pros perous sinners scarce see the harm of sin at all; others, while they feel the harm of it redounding to themselves, lay the blame of it on something else. It were less unaccountable if men only justified or excused themselves to their fellow creatures, their partakers in guilt one sinner may easily find a thousand plausible answers to the upbraiding language of another sinner; for how can a man be at a loss for a defence against those who cannot accuse him without condemn. ing themselves; he may answer them in the apostle's words, Rom. ii. 1. Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that judgest another; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest, doest the same things. But the misery of men's self love is, that it makes them pretend to vindicate themselves, not only against the oftentimes too partial contempt of their guilty fellow-creatures, but also against the most impartial challenges of their offended Creator. When men vindicate themselves only against their associates in guilt, it may be constructed as a pretence only to equality with others; but for men to defend themselves before God, is in effect a pretence to innocency. By this means the chief vexation many have about their most unrighteous practices, is murmuring against God's most righteous precepts, according to the old complaint, who can bear these hard sayings? Many are not so sorry for their sins against God's law, as for the severity of God's law against their sins; and one great cause of it, is, their imagining these temptations that allure them to sin, sufficient excuses for the committing of it; which is surely a disposition of mind that undermines repentance, and saps the very foundation of true religion.

Yet this is not the highest pitch the arrogance of sin

ners arrives at in defending their sins. It is indeed high enough presumption in one, who has, times without number, offended God without cause, to justify himself, when God accuses him; but it is still a far higher pitch of presumption, when a sinner not only defends himself before God, but also defends himself by accusing God, discharging himself of the blame of his sin, and laying it over upon God: in this likewise men seem to copy after their first parent Adam; the scripture tells that God gave him a help meet for him, which was, no doubt, an act of goodness on God's part; yet when he sinned against God without cause, rather than want a defence altogether, he made the gift he received from God, an excuse for his disobedience to him; that is, he made God's goodness to him ar excuse for his ingratitude to God.

It is easy to observe how truly this conduct of his is imitated by his posterity. God has placed us in a beautiful world, where we are surrounded with a variety of useful and delightful objects, his good creatures; all of them display his glory, many of them are for sup plying our necessities, others of them for our innocent gratification and comfort; all of them therefore are favours from God, and consequently should be effectual motives to love him. Instead of this, they are first made occasions of departing from him, and afterwards excuses for so doing. As there is something of this perverse disposition in the corrupt nature of all men, so it has appeared in all ages; and that it discovered itself in the days of the apostles, is evident from this text, which was designed to check it, Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, &c.

In which words, it is useful to observe these two things. First, A rebuke to the arrogance of men, that would lay the blame of their sins on God. Secondly, A strong assertion of God's untainted holiness and purity, as a God who is infinitely free from tempting others, and from being tempted by others to any thing that is evil.

1. The words contain a check to the impious arre gance of men, that would lay the blame of the

on God: Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; that is, Let no man say it with his mouth, or imagine it in his heart; let no man dare to commit such an outrage against the holiness of God, as to charge him with the blame of his sin, in whole, or in part. The apostle here assures us that if we entertain such thoughts in our hearts, God will justly look upon it as a heinous violation of that homage and respect we owe him: it is one of the chief things that distinguishes the laws of God from those of men; that whereas the latter reach only our outward actions, the former reach our thoughts. One principal part of that holiness which the law of God requires of us, is to entertain just thoughts of him, that is, high and exalted thoughts, such as shall represent him what he truly is, perfectly pure, and infinitely lovely. Nothing can be more contrary to this, than to blame him for our sins; and when God's law forbids such thoughts, it is a certain evidence that they are false, and that we are under the strongest obligations to reject them. God's truth is infallible, and therefore whatever natural corruption suggests, it can suggest nothing that should come in competition with that evidence.

2dly. To strengthen our impression of this, the apostle adds a strong assertion of God's spotless and incorruptible purity. His assertion consists of two parts.

1. He teaches us, that God cannot be tempted with evil, that is, That there is nothing in his own nature, that can incline him to any thing but what is perfectly good and just; and that there is no outward object that can make any impression, or have any influence on him, to bias him from these eternal laws of justice and rightcousness, by which he always did, and ever will govern the world. The word, tempting, is sometimes taken in another sense, when it signifies not perverting God to do any evil action himself, but provoking him to punish the evil actions of others; thus the Israelites are said to have tempted him in the wilderness in such cases, though that, by which men tempt or provoke God, be evil, that which he is provoked to do, is always just and good, Men are said to tempt God,