Thomas Manton · 10 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter I. · Part 7

The notes are these:—

Obs. 1. Riches are not altogether inconsistent with Christianity. `Let the rich, that is, the rich brother. Usually they are a great snare. It is a hard matter to enjoy the world without being entangled with the cares and pleasures of it. The moon never suffereth eclipse but when it is at the full; and usually in our fulness we miscarry; and therefore our Saviour saith, Mat. xix. 24, `It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God., It is a Jewish proverb to note an impossibility. Rich men should often think of it. A camel may as soon go through a needle's eye, as you enter into the kingdom of God. That were a rare miracle of nature, indeed, to see a camel or an elephant to pass through a needle's eye; and it is as rare a miracle of grace to see a rich man gained to Christ and a love of heaven. Of all person sin the world, they are least apprehensive of spiritual excellences. Christ himself came in poverty, in a prejudice, as it were, to them that love riches. Plato, an heathen, saith the same almost with Christ, that it is impossible for a man to be eminently rich and eminently good. The way of grace is usually so strait, that there is scarce any room for them that would enter with their great burthens of riches and honour. But you will say, What will you have Christians to do then? In a lavish luxury to throw away their estates? or in an excess of charity to make others full, when themselves are empty? I answer—No; there are two passages to mollify the rigour of our Lord's saying. One is in the context, `With God all things are possible, Mat. xix. 26. Difficulties in the way to heaven serve to bring us to a despair of ourselves, not of God. He can loosen the heart from the world, that riches shall be no impediment; as Job by providence was made eminently rich, and by grace eminently godly—`none like him in all the earth, Job i. 8. The other passage is in Mark x. 23, 24, `Jesus said, How hard is it for them that have riches to enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were astonished at his words; but Jesus answereth again, How hard is it for them that trust riches to enter into the kingdom of God!, It is not the having, but the trusting. Riches in the having, in the bare possession, are not a hindrance to Christianity, but in our abuse of them. The sum of all is, it is impossible to trust in riches and enter into the kingdom of God, and it to us is impossible to have riches and not to trust in them. Well, then, of all men, rich men should be most careful. A man may be rich and godly, but it is because now and then God will work some miracles of grace. Your possessions will not be your ruin till your corruptions mingle with them. Under the law the poor and rich were to pay the same ransom, Exod. xxx. 15, intimating they may have interest in the same Christ. It is Austin's observationthat poor Lazarus was saved in the bosom of rich Abraham. Riches in themselves are God's blessings that come within a promise. It is said, Ps. cxii. 3, of him that feareth the Lord, that `wealth and riches shall be in his house;, that is, when God seeth good, for all temporal promises must be understood with an exception. They do not intimate what always shall be, but that whatever is is by way of a blessing, the fruit of a promise, not of chance, or a looser providence. Yea, riches with a blessing are so far from being a hindrance to grace, that they are an ornament to it; so Prov. xiv. 24, `The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly., A rich wise man is more conspicuous; an estate may adorn virtue, but it cannot disguise folly. A wise man that is rich hath an advantage to discover himself which others have not; but a fool is a fool still, as an ape is an ape though tied with a golden chain. And to this sense I suppose Solomon speaketh when he saith, Eccles. vii. 11, `Wisdom with an inheritance is good;, that is, more eminent and useful. And thus you see riches are as men use them, blessings promiscuously dispensed—to the good, lest they should be thought altogether evil; to the bad, lest they should be thought only good.

Obs. 2. That a rich man's humility is his glory. Your excellency doth not lie in the pomp and splendour of your condition, but in the meekness of your hearts. Humility is not only a clothing, `Put on humbleness of mind, Col. iii. 12, but an ornament, 1 Peter v. 5, `Be decked with humility, ἐγκομβώσασθε. It cometh from a word that signifieth a knot, that maketh decency when things are fitly tied. Men think that humility is a debasement, and meekness a derogation from their honour and repute. Ah! but you see God counteth it an ornament. It is not a disguise, but a decking. None so base as the proud in the eyes of God and men. Before God, you must not value yourself by your estate and outward pomp, but your graces. An high mind and a low condition are all one to the Lord, only poverty hath the advantage, because it is usually gracious. If any may glory, they may glory that have most arguments of God's love. Now a lowly mind is a far better testimony of it than an high estate. And so before men, as Augustine said, he is a great man that is not lifted up because of his greatness. You are not better than others by your estate, but your meekness. The apostles possessed all things though they had nothing. They have more than you if they have a humble heart.

Obs. 3. That the way to be humble is to count the world's advantages our abasement. The poor man must glory in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low. Honours and riches do but set us beneath other men, rather than above them, and do rather abate from you than add anything to you; and it may be you have less of the Spirit because you have more of the world. God doth not use to flow in both ways. Well, then, get this mind in the midst of your abundance. It is nothing what you do at other times. Men dispraise that which they want, as the fox the grapes, and simple men learning. But when you are rich, can you glory in that you are made low, and say, All this is but low in regard of the saints, privileges? This would keep the heart in a right frame, so that you could lose wealth or keep it. If you lose it, you do but lose a part of your abasement; if you keep it, you do not keep that which setteth you the higher or the nearer to God. This is to `possess all things as if you possessed them not, 1 Cor. vii. 30—not to have them in your hearts when you have them in your houses. And the truth is, this is the way to keep them still, to be humble in the possession of them: Mat. xxiii. 12, 4 Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted., Riches will be your abasement, if you do not think them so.

Obs. 4. If we would be made low in the midst of worldly enjoyments, we should consider the uncertainty of them. This is the reason rendered by the apostle, `Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away., We are worldly, because we forget the world's vanity and our own transitoriness: Ps. xlix. 11, `Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names., Either we think that we shall live for ever, or leave our riches to those that will continue our memory for ever; that is, to our children, which are but the parent multiplied and continued; which is, as one saith, nodosa aeternitas, a knotty eternity. When our thread is spun out and done, their thread is knit to it; and so we dream of a continued succession in our name and family. But alas! this inward thought is but a vain thought—a sorry refuge by which man would make amends for the loss of the true eternity. But in vain; for we perish, and our estate too. Both your persons and your condition are transitory. The apostle saith, `He shall pass away like the flower of the grass., Man himself is like the grass, soon withered; his condition is like the flower of the grass, gone with a puff of wind. So 1 Peter i. 24, `All flesh is grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the grass., Many times the flower is gone when the stalk remaineth; so man seeth all that he hath been gathering a long time soon dissipated by the breath of providence, and he, like a withered rotten stalk, liveth scorned and neglected. The scriptures make use of both these arguments sometimes our own transitoriness, as Luke xii. 20, `Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee., Here men toil, and beat their brains, and tire their spirits, and rack their consciences; and when they have done all, like silkworms, they die in their work, and God taketh them away ere they can roast what they get in hunting. Sometimes the transitoriness of these outward things; if we do not leave them, they may leave us. As many a man hath survived his happiness, and lived so long as to see himself, when his flower is gone, to be cast out upon the dunghill of scorn and contempt. And, truly it is a madness to be proud of that which may perish before we perish, as it is the worst of miseries to outlive our own happiness. The apostle saith, 1 Tim. vi. 17, `Charge rich men that they be not high-minded, and trust not in uncertain riches., Trust should have a sure object, for it is the quiet repose of the soul in the bosom of an immutable good. Therefore that which is uncertain cannot yield a ground of trust. You may entertain it with jealousy, but not with trust; so Prov. xxiii. 5, `Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?, Outward riches are so far from being the best things, that they rather are not anything at all. Solomon calleth them `that which is not;, and who ever loved nothing, and would be proud of that which is not?

Obs. 5. The uncertainty of worldly enjoyments may be well resembled by a flower—beautiful, but fading. The similitude is elsewhere used: I gave you places in the exposition, let me add a few more: see Ps. ciii. 15, 16, `As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: for the wind passeth over it. and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more., When the flower is gone, the root, as afraid, shrinketh into the ground, and there remaineth neither remnant nor sign; so many a man that keepeth a bustling, and ruffleth it in the world, is soon snapped off by providence, and there doth not remain the least sign and memorial of him. So 1 Peter i. 24, `For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away., It is repeated and returned to our consideration—`all flesh is grass, and then, `the grass withereth, to show that we should often whet it and inculcate it upon our thoughts. In short, from this resemblance you may learn two things:—

1. That though the things of the world are specious, yet they should not allure us, because they are fading. Flowers are sweet, and affect the eye, but their beauty is soon scorched: the soul is for an eternal good, that it may have a happiness suitable to its own duration. An immortal soul cannot have full contentment in that which is fading; but this is a point that calleth for meditation rather than demonstration. It is easy to declaim upon the vanity of the creature: it is every man's object and every man's subject. Oh! but think of it seriously, and desire God to be in your thoughts. When the creatures tempt you, be not enticed by the beauty of them, so as to forget their vanity. Say, Here is a flower, glorious, but fading; glass that is bright, but brittle.

2. The fairest things are most fading. Creatures, when they come to their excellency, then they decay, as herbs, when they come to flower, they begin to wither; or, as the sun when it cometh to the zenith, then it declineth: Ps. xxxix. 5, `Man at his best estate is altogether vanity;, not at his worst only, when the feebleness and inconveniences of old age have surprised him. Many, you know, are blasted and cut off in their flower, and wither as soon as they begin to flourish. Paul had a messenger of Satan presently upon his ecstasy, 2 Cor. xii. 7. So the prophet speaketh of `a grasshopper in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, Amos vii. 1. As soon as the ground recovered any verdure and greenness, presently there came a grasshopper to devour the herbage: the meaning is, a new affliction as soon as they began to flourish. Well, then, suspect these outward things when you most abound in them. David thought of overthrows when God had given him a great victory, as Ps. lx. Com pare the psalm with the title. So it is good to think of famine and want in the midst of plenty: a man doth not know what overturnings there may be in the world. The woman that stood not in need of the prophet, 2 Kings iv. 13, `I dwell among my own people, that is, I have no need of friends at court, yet afterward stood in need of the prophet's man, 2 Kings viii. 5. The Lord knoweth how soon your condition may be turned; when it seemeth to flourish most, it may be near a withering.

Ver. 11. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth; so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

He pursueth the similitude, and in the close of the verse applieth it. There is nothing needeth illustration but the latter clause.

So shall; that is, so may; for the passage is not absolutely definitive of what always shall be, but only declarative of what may be; and, therefore, the future tense is used for the potential mood. We see, many times, that `the wicked live, become old, and mighty in power; their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them: their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf, Job xxi. 7-10. Therefore, I say, the apostle showeth not what always cometh to pass, but what may be, and usually falleth out, and what at length certainly will be their portion.

The rich man.—That is either to be taken generally for the rich, whether godly or ungodly, or more especially for the ungodly person that trusteth in his riches.

Fade away μαρανθήσεται, a word proper to herbs when they lose their verdure and beauty.

In his ways.—Some read, as Erasmus and Gagneus, ἐν πορίαις, `with his abundance, which reading Calvin also approveth, as suiting better with the context, `So shall the rich and all his abundance fade away;, but the general and more received reading is that which we follow, ἐν πορείαις in his ways or journeys; the word is emphatical, and importeth that earnest industry by which men compass sea and land, run hither and thither in the pursuit of wealth, and yet, when all is done, it fadeth like the flower of the grass.

The notes are these:—

Obs. 1. From the continuance of the similitude, that the vanity of flowers should hint thoughts to us about the vanity of our own comforts. We delight in pictures and emblems, for then the soul, by the help of fancy and imagination, hath a double view of the object in the similitude, which is, as it were, a picture of it, and then the thing itself. This was God's ancient way to teach his people by types; still he teacheth us by similitudes taken from common and ordinary objects, that when we are cast upon them, spiritual thoughts may be awakened; and so every ordinary object is, as it were, hallowed and consecrated to a heavenly purpose. Well, then, let this be your field or garden meditation; when you see them decked with a great deal of bravery, remember all this is gone in an instant when the burning heat ariseth. In the text it is (let me open that by the way) ἥλιος σὺν τῷ καύσωνι, the sun with a burning wind, so in the original; for καύσων, the word used here, is usually put here for a scorching wind, which, in the hot and eastern countries, was wont to accompany the rising of the sun; as Jonah iv. 8, `It came to pass, when the sun did begin to arise, God prepared a vehement east wind;, and, therefore, do we read of `the drying east wind, Ezek. xvii. 10; and in many places of Hosea. It was a hot, piercing wind that blasted all things, and was the usual figure of God's judgments; and so the psalmist saith, `The wind passeth over it, and it is gone, Ps. ciii. 16. But this by the way, because I omitted it in the exposition. When, I say, you walk in a garden or field, as Isaac did, to meditate, Gen. xxiv. 63, think thus with yourselves: Here is a goodly show and paintry; but alas! these things are but for a season; they would fade away of their own accord, but the breath of the east wind will soon dry them up; so are all worldly comforts like flowers in the spring, good in their season, but very vanishing and perishing.

Obs. 2. That our comforts are perishing in themselves, but especially when the hand of providence is stretched out against them. The flower fadeth of itself, but chiefly when it is scorched by the glowing, burning east wind. Our hearts should be loose at all times from outward things, but especially in times of public desolation; it is a sin against providence to affect great things: when God is over turning all, then there is a burning heat upon the flowers, and God is gone forth to blast worldly glory: Jer. xlv. 4, 5, `The Lord saith, I will pluck up this whole land, and seekest thou great things for thyself?, that is, a prosperous condition in a time of public desolation; it is as if a man should be planting flowers when there is a wind gone forth to blast them. Well, then, take heed you do not make providence your enemy, then your comforts will become more perishing. You cannot then expect a comfortable warmth from God, but a burning heat. There are three sins especially by which you make providence your enemy, and so the creatures more vain.

1. When you abuse them to serve your lusts. Where there is pride and wantonness, you may look for a burning; certainly your flowers will be scorched and dried up. Pleasant Sodom, when it was given to `pride, and idleness, and fulness of bread, met with a burning heat indeed, Ezek. xvi. 49: in Salvian's phrase, God will rain hell out of heaven rather than not visit for such sins.

2. When you make them objects of trust. God can brook no rivals; trust being the fairest and best respect of the creatures, it must not be intercepted, but ascend to God. If you make idols of the creatures, God will make nothing of them; the fire of God's jealousy is a burning heat. God took away from Judah the staff and the stay, Isa. iii. 1; that is, that which they made so, excluding him; for that is the case in the context. So when you trust in your wealth, as if it must needs be well with your families, and you were secured against all judgments, and turns of providence; certainly God will take away the staff and the stay, and show that riches are but dead helps, when they are preferred before the living God, 1 Tim. vi. 17.

3. When you get them by wrong means. Wealth thus gotten is flesh (like the eagles from the altar) with a coal in it, that devoureth the whole nest: Hab. ii. 9, `Woe be to him that coveteth an evil covetousness, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil., You think it is a ready way to advance you; no, this is the ready way to ruin all: James v. 3, `Your gold and silver shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire;, that is, draw the fire and burning heat of God's wrath upon yourselves and families.

From that his ways.

Obs. 3. Worldly men pursue wealth with great care and industry. The rich turneth hither and thither, he hath several ways whereby to accomplish his ends. In self-denial, covetousness is the ape of grace; it `suffereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 1 Cor. xiii. 6, 7. What pains do men take for things that perish! Do but observe their incessant care, earnest labour, and unwearied industry, and say, how well would this suit with the heavenly treasure! It is a pity a plant that would thrive so well in Canaan should still grow in the soil of Egypt; that the zealous earnestness of the soul should be misplaced, and we should take more pains to be rich unto the world than to be rich towards God. Luke xii. 21. Man fallen is but the anagram of man in innocency, he hath the same affections and delights, only they are transposed and misplaced; therefore do we offend in the measure, because we mistake in the object. Or else, secondly, observe their pains and care, and say thus: Shall a lust have more power upon them than the love of God upon me? I have higher motives, and a reward more sure, Prov. xi. 18; they are more earnest for an earthly purchase, and to heap up treasure to themselves, than I am to enrich my soul with spiritual and heavenly excellences. Surely grace is an active thing, of as forcible an efficacy as corruption; why then do we act with such difference and disproportion? The fault is not in grace, but in ourselves. Grace is like a keen weapon in a child's hand; it maketh little impression because it is weakly wielded. Worldly men have the advantage of us in matter of principle, but we have the advantage of them in matter of motive; we have higher motives, but they more entire principles, for what they do, they do with their whole heart; but our principles are mixed, and therefore grace worketh with a greater faintness than corruption doth. But, however, it is sad. Pambus, in ecclesiastical history, wept when he saw a harlot dressed with much care and cost, partly to see one take so much pains for her own undoing, partly because he had not been so careful to please God as she had been to please a wanton lover. And truly when we see men `cumber themselves with much serving, and toiling and bustling up and down in the world, and all for riches that `take themselves wings and fly away, we may be ashamed that we do so little for Christ, and they do so much for wealth, and that we do not lay out our strength and earnestness for heaven with any proportion to what they do for the world.

Obs. 4. Lastly, again, from that ἐν ταῖς πορείαις, from his ways or journeys. All our endeavours will be fruitless if God's hand be against us. As the flower to the burning heat, so is the rich man in his ways; that is, notwithstanding all his industry and care, God may soon blast him: they `earned wages, but put it in a bag with holes, Hag. i. 6; that is, their gains did not thrive with them. Peter `toiled all night but caught nothing, till he took Christ into the boat, Luke v. 5. So you will catch nothing, nothing with comfort and profit, till you take God along with you: Ps. cxxvii. 2, `It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep., Some take this place in a more particular and restrained sense; as if David would intimate that all their agitations to oppose the reign of Solomon, though backed with much care and industry, should be fruitless; though Absalom and Adonijah were tortured with the care of their own ambitious designs, yet God would give Jedidiah, or his beloved, rest; that is, the kingdom should quietly and safely be devolved upon Solomon, who took no such pains to court the people, and to raise himself up into their esteem as Absa lom and Adonijah did; and they ground this exposition partly on the title of the psalm, `a, psalm for Solomon, partly on the name of Solo mon, who was called Jedidijah, or the beloved of the Lord, 2 Sam. xii. 24, 25, the word used here, `he giveth his beloved rest., But I suppose this sense is too curious; for though the psalm be entitled to Solomon, yet I think not so much by way of prophecy as direction: for as the 72d Psalm (which also beareth title for Solomon) representeth to him the model of a kingdom and the affairs thereof, so this psalm, the model of a family, with the incident cares and blessings of it; and therefore the passages of it are of a more universal and un limited concernment than to be appropriated to Solomon; and it is not to be neglected that the Septuagint turn the Hebrew word plurally, τοῖς ἀγαπητοῖς αὐτοῦ ὕπνον, `his beloved ones sleep, showing that the sentence is general. The meaning is, then, that though worldly men fare never so hardly, beat their brains, tire their spirits, rack their consciences, yet many times all is for nothing; either God doth not give them an estate, or not the comfort of it. But his beloved, without any of these racking cares, enjoy contentment: if they have not the world, they have sleep and rest; with silence submitting to the will of God, and with quietness waiting for the blessing of God. Well, then, acknowledge the providence that you may come under the blessing of it; labour without God cannot prosper; against God and against his will in his word, will surely miscarry.

Ver. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Here the apostle concludeth all the former discourse with a general sentence. I shall despatch it very briefly, because the matter of it often occurreth in this epistle.

Blessed; that is, already blessed. They are not miserable, as the world judgeth them: it is a Christian paradox, wherein there is an allusion to what is said, Job v. 17, `Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth;, it is a wonder, and therefore he calleth the world to see it—Behold! So the apostle, in an opposition to the judgment of the world, saith, Blessed.

Is the man, ἀνὴρ.—The word used is only proper to the masculine sex, and therefore some have forced and obtruded some misshapen conceits upon this scripture; whereas throughout the epistle we shall observe our apostle delighteth in the use of this word for both sexes; as ver. 23, ἄνδρι παρακύψαντι, `A man beholding his face, &c., in tending a man or woman, for it answereth to the Hebrew word isch, under which the woman also was comprehended.

That endureth, ὃς ὑπομένει—that is, that patiently and constantly beareth. A wicked man suffereth, but he doth not endure: they suffer, but unwillingly, with murmuring and blasphemy; but the godly man endureth; that is, beareth the affliction with patience and constancy; without murmuring, fainting, or blaspheming. Enduring is taken in a good sense; as Heb. xii. 7, `If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons., God is not perceived to deal as a father, but when the affliction is patiently borne, which the apostle calleth enduring there.

Temptation.—Affliction is so called, as before; in itself it is a punishment of sin, but to the godly but a trial; as death, the king of terrors, or highest of afflictions, is in itself the wages of sin, but to them, the gate of eternal life.