Thomas Manton · 12 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter I. · Part 9

Obs. 2. Creatures, rather than not transfer their guilt, will cast it upon God himself. They blame the Lord in their thoughts; it is foolish to cast it altogether upon Satan—to say, I was tempted of Satan. Alas! if there were no Satan to tempt we should tempt ourselves. His suggestions and temptations would not work were there not some intervening thought, and that maketh us guilty. Besides, some sins have their sole rise from our own corruption, as the imperfect animals are sometimes bred ex putri materia, only out of slimy matter, and at other times they are engendered by copulation. It is useless to cast it upon others—I was tempted of others. Actions cannot he accomplished without our own concurrence, and we must bear the guilt. But it is blasphemous to cast it upon God, and say, `I am tempted of God;, and yet we are apt to do so,—partly to be clear in our own thoughts. Men would do anything rather than think basely of themselves, for it is man's disposition to be `right in his own eyes, Prov. xvi. 2. We love those glasses that would make us show fairest. It is against nature for a man willingly to profess and own his own shame: Job. xxxi. 33, `If I hid my sin as did Adam, i.e., more hominum, as Adam and all Adam's children do. Men would be clear and better than they are. Partly because by casting it upon God the soul is most secure. When he that is to punish sin beareth the guilt of it, the soul is relieved from much horror and bondage; therefore, in the way of faith, God's transacting our sin upon Christ is most satisfying to the spirit: Isa. liii. 6, `The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all., Now, we would lay it upon God by odious aspersions of his power and providence; for if we could once make God a sinner, we would be secure. You see we do not fear men that are as faulty as ourselves; they need pardon as well as we, and therefore is it that the soul doth so wickedly design to bring God into a partnership and fellowship of our guilt. Partly through a wicked desire that is in men to blemish the being of God. Man naturally hateth God; and our spite is shown this way, by polluting and profaning his glory, and making it become vile in our thoughts; for since we cannot raze out the sense of the deity, we would destroy the dread and reverence of it. It is a saying of Plutarch, Malo de me dici nullum esse Plutarchum quam malum esse Plutarchum, de Deo male sentire quam Deum esse negare pejus duco. We cannot deny God, and therefore we debase him, which is worst, as it is better not to be than to be wicked; we think him `as one of us, Ps. 1. 21; and the apostle saith, `We turn his glory into a lie., Rom. i. 25. Well, then, beware of this wickedness of turning sin upon God. The more natural it is to us the more should we take heed of it. We charge God with our evils and sins divers ways,—

1. When we blame his providence, the state of things, the times, the persons about us, the circumstances of providence, as the laying of tempting objects in our way, our condition, &c., as if God's disposing of our interests were a calling us to sin: thus Adam, Gen. iii. 12, `The woman which thou gavest me, she gave me, and I did eat., Mark, it is obliquely reflected upon God, `The woman which thou gavest me., So many will plead the greatness of their distractions and incumbrances. God hath laid so many miseries and discouragements upon them, and cast them upon such hard times, that they are forced to such shifts; whereas, alas! God sendeth us miseries, not to make us worse, but to make us better, as Paul seemeth to argue in 1 Cor. x. 13, 14: if they did turn to idolatry, the fault was not in their sufferings and trials, but in themselves. Thus you make God to tempt you to sin when you transfer it upon providence, and blame your condition rather than yourselves. Providence may dispose of the object, but it doth not impel or excite the lust; it appointeth the condition, but Satan setteth up the snare. It was by God's providence that the wedge of gold lay in Achan's way, that Bathsheba was offered naked to David's eye, that the sensual man hath abundance, that the timorous is surprised with persecution, &c. All these things are from God, for the fault lieth not here. The outward estate, or the creatures that have been the occasions of our sinning, cannot be blamed: as beauty in women, pleasantness in wine. These are good creatures of God, meant for a remedy; we turn them into a snare. The more of God's goodness or glory is seen in any creature, the greater check it is to a temptation, for so far it is a memorial of God; and therefore some have observed that desires simply unclean are most usually stirred up towards deformed objects. Beauty in itself is some stricture and resemblance of the divine majesty and glory, and therefore cannot but check motions altogether brutish. It is very observable that of the apostle Peter: 2 Pet. i. 4, `The corruption that is in the world through lust., The world is only the object; the cause is lust. The reason why men are covetous, or sensual, or effeminate, is not in gold, or wine, or women, but in men's naughty affections and dispositions. So also it is very observable, that when the apostle John would sum up the contents of that world which is opposite to the love of God, he doth not name the objects, but the lusts; the fault is there. He doth not say, Whatsoever is in the world is pleasures, or honours, or profits, but `the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, and addeth, `These are not of the Father, but of the world, 1 John ii. 16; that is, not of God, as riches, and honour, and other outward things are, but these are parts of that world that man hath made, the world in our own bowels, as the poison is not in the flower, but in the spider's nature.

2. By ascribing sin to the defect and faint operation of the divine grace. Men will say they could do no otherwise; they had no more grace given them by God: Prov. xix. 3, `The foolishness of man perverteth his ways, and his heart fretteth against the Lord., They say it was long of God; he did not give more grace. They `corrupt themselves in what they know, Jude 10, and then complain, God gave no power. Men naturally look upon God as a Pharaoh, requiring brick where he gave no straw. The servant in the Gospel would make his master in the fault why he did not improve his talent: Mat. xxv. 24, `I knew thou wert an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed, and therefore I went and hid the talent;, as if that were all the cause.

3. When men lay all their miscarriages upon their fate, and the unhappy stars that shone at their birth, these are but blind flings at God himself, veiled under reflections upon the creature. Alas! `who is it that bringeth out Mazzaroth in his season, that ordereth the stars in their course? is it not the Lord?, To this sort you may refer them that storm at any creatures, because they dare not openly and clearly oppose themselves against heaven; .as Job curseth the clay of his birth, Job iii. 3, as if it had been unlucky to him; and others curse some lower instruments.

4. When men are angry they know not why. They are loath to spend any holy indignation upon themselves; therefore, feeling the stings and gripes of conscience, they fret and fume, and know not why. They would fain break out against God, but dare not; as David himself, 2 Sam. vi. 8, `David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah., He was angry, but could not tell with whom to be angry; he should have been angry with his own folly and ignorance. Wicked men break out apparently: Isa. viii. 21, 22, `They shall fret themselves, and curse their God, and their king, and look upward; and they shall look to the earth, &c. Sin proving unhappy, vexeth the soul; and then men curse and rave, and break out into indecencies of passion and madness, accusing God, and providence, and instruments, and any but themselves. So. Rev. xvi. 21, `They blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their plagues;, the madness of their rage breaketh out into open blasphemy. But in the children of God it is more secretly carried; there is a storming in their hearts, but they dare not give it vent; as in Jonah, chap. iv., he was vexed, and surcharged with passion, but knew not upon whom to disgorge it.

5. Most grossly, when you think he useth any suggestion to the soul, to persuade it and incline it to evil. Satan may come, and, by the help of fancy and the senses, transmit evil counsel to the soul. But God doth not, as more fully hereafter: Mat. v. 37, `Whatsoever is beyond these cometh of evil;, in the original it is ἐκ πονηροῦ, not only of the evil heart, but the evil serpent; from the devil, and our corruption, if it be beside the rule. There is Satan's counsel in all this, not the Lord's.

6. When you have an ill understanding and conceit of his decrees, as if they did necessitate you to sin. Men will say, Who can help it? God would have it so,—as if that were an excuse for all. Though God hath decreed that sin shall be, yet he doth neither infuse evil nor enforce you to evil. God doth not infuse evil; that which draweth you to it is your own concupiscence, as in the next verse. He doth not give you an evil nature or evil habits; these are from yourselves. He doth enforce you, neither physically, by urging and inclining the will to act, nor morally, by counselling and persuading, or commanding you to it. God leaveth you to yourselves, casteth you in his providence, and in pursuance of his decrees, upon such things as are a snare to you; that is all that God doth, as anon will more fully appear. I only now take notice of that wickedness which is in our natures, whereby we are apt to blemish God, and excuse ourselves.

Obs. 3. From that he cannot be tempted with evil, that God is so immutably good and holy that he is above the power of a temptation. Men soon warp and vary, but he cannot be tempted. There is a wicked folly in man which maketh us measure God by the creature; and, because we can be tempted, think God can be tempted also; as suppose, enticed to give way to our sins. Why else do they desire him to prosper them in their evil projects, to further unjust gain, or un clean intents?—as the whore, Prov. vii. 14, had her vows and peace-offerings to prosper in her wantonness. And generally, we deal with God as if he could be tempted and wrought to a compliance with our corrupt ends, as Solomon speaketh of sacrifice offered with an evil mind, Prov. xxi. 27; that is, to gain the favour of heaven in some evil undertaking and design. Thus the king of Moab hoped to entice God by the multitude of his sacrifices, seven altars, seven oxen, seven rams, Num. xxii., and the prophet, of some that thought to draw God into a liking of their oppression: Zech. xi. 5, `Blessed be God, I am rich., So in these times wicked men have a pretence of religion, as if they would allure the Lord to enter into their secret, and come under the banner of their faction and conspiracy. Oh! what base thoughts have carnal men of God! No wonder the word of God is made a nose of wax, when God himself is made an idol or puppet, that moveth by the wire of every carnal worshipper! Oh! check this blasphemy. God cannot be tempted; he is immutably just and holy: Hab. i. 13, `Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity., Iniquity shall never have a good look from him. Oh! then, how should we tremble that are easily carried aside with temptation! How can you stand before the God that cannot be tempted?

Uses of this note are two:—

1. It is an inducement to get an interest in God, and more communion with him: a believer is `made partaker of the divine nature, 2 Peter i. 4. Now the more of the divine nature in you, the more you are able to stand against temptations. We are easily carried aside, because we have more of man than God in us. We are so mutable, that if all memory of sin and Satan were abolished, man himself would become his own devil; but God is at the same stay. Oh! let us covet more of the divine nature, that when the tempter cometh he may find the less in us. We do in nothing so much resemble God as in immutable holiness.

2. You may make use of it to the purpose in hand. When natural thoughts rise in us, thoughts against the purity of God, say thus: Surely God cannot be the author of sin, who is the ultor or the avenger of it; he is at the same pass and stay of holiness, and cannot warp aside to evil. Especially make use of it when anything is said of God in scripture which doth not agree with that standing copy of his holiness, the righteous law which he hath given us. Do not think it any variation from that immutable tenor of purity and justice which is in his nature, for `he cannot be tempted;, as when he bade Abraham offer his son, it was not evil, partly because God may require the life of any of his creatures when he will; partly because, being the lawgiver, he may dispense with his own law: and a peculiar precept is not in force when it derogateth from a general command, to wit, that we must do whatsoever God requireth: so in bidding them spoil the Egyptians. God is not bound to our rule; the moral law is a rule to us, not to himself, &c. In all such cases salve the glory of God, for he is ἀπείραστος κακῶν, altogether incapable of the least sin or evil.

Obs. 4. From that neither tempteth he any man, that the Lord is no tempter; the author of all good cannot be the author of sin. God useth many a moving persuasion to draw us to holiness, not a hint to encourage us to sin; certainly they are far from the nature of God that entice others to wickedness, for he tempteth no man—man tempteth others many ways:

1. By commands, when you contribute your authority to the countenancing of it. It is the character of Jeroboam that he `made Israel to sin:, `Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that made Israel to sin., It is again and again repeated; the guilt of a whole nation lieth upon his shoulders; Israel ruined him, and he ruined Israel. So 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9, `Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and do worse than the heathens., Mark, he made them; their sins are charged upon your score. In the 7th of the Revelations, where the tribes are numbered, Dan is altogether left out, and Ephraim is not mentioned. Dan was the first leading tribe that by example went over to idols: Judges xviii., and Ephraim by authority: so some give the reason.

2. By their solicitations and entreaties, when men become panders to others, lusts: Prov. vii. 21, `With much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him., Mark, she caused him to yield, and then forced him; first he began to incline, and then he could no longer resist. When such Eves lay forth their apples, what evil cometh by it? Solicitations are as the bellows to blow up those latent sparkles of sin which are hidden in our natures into a flame.

3. Those that soothe up or encourage men in their evil ways, calling evil good and good evil, like Ahab's prophets. Their word is, `Go up and prosper;, they cry, Peace, peace! to a soul utterly sunk and lost in a pit of perdition. Oh! how far are these from the nature of God. He tempteth no man; but these are devils in man's shape; their work is to seduce and tempt—murderers of souls, yea (as Epiphanius calleth the Novatians), murderers of repentance. Dives in hell had more charity; he would have some to testify to his brethren `lest they came into that place of torment, Luke xvi. 28. But these are factors for hell, negotiate for Satan, strengthen the hands of the wicked, and (which God taketh worse) discourage and set back those that were looking towards heaven. So the apostle, 2 Peter ii. 18, they `allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them that live in error, τοὺς ὄντως αποφυγόντας, really or verily escaped, that is, had begun to profess the gospel; or, as some copies have, ὀλίγως ἀποφυγόντας, having a little escaped from error; thence the vulgar eos qui paululum effugiunt, with which the Syriac and Arabic translations agree; and so it showeth how ill God taketh it, that the early growth and budding of grace should be blasted, and as soon as they began to profess any change, that a seducer should set them back again, and entangle those that had made some escape, and were in a fair way to a holy life. This is Satan's disposition outright: the dragon watched for the man-child as soon as he was born, Rev. xii. 4, and these make advantage of those early tendencies and dispositions to faith which are in poor souls; for while they are deeply affected with their sins, and admiring the riches and grace of Christ, they strike in with some erroneous representations, and, under a colour of liberty and gospel, reduce and bring them back to their old looseness.

Use 2. If God tempteth no man, then it informeth us that God cannot be the author of sin. I shall here take occasion a little to enlarge upon that point. I shall first clear those places which seem to imply it; then, secondly, show you what is the efficiency and concurrence of God about sin.

I. For the clearing of the places of scripture. They are of divers ranks; there are some places that seem to say that God doth tempt, as Gen. xxii. 1, `God tempted Abraham;, so in many other places; but that was but a trial of his faith, not a solicitation to sin. There is a tempting by way of trial, and a tempting by way of seducement. God trieth their obedience, but doth not stir them up to sin. But you will say, there are other places which seem to hint that God doth solicit, incite, and stir up to sin; as 1 Chron. v. 26, `God stirred up the spirit of Pul, the king of Assyria, to carry away the Jews captive;, but that was not evil, to punish an hypocritical nation, but just and holy, a part of his corrective discipline; and God's stirring implieth nothing but the designation of his providence, and the ordering of that rage and fury that in them was stirred up by ambition and other evil causes, as a correction to his people. So also 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, `The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David to number the people., But compare it with 1 Chron. xxi. 1, and you shall see it is said, `Satan stood up and provoked David to number the people;, and so some explain one place by the other, and refer that he to Satan, `The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he, (that is, the devil); or it may be referred to the last antecedent, the Lord, whose anger is said to be stirred up; he moved, that is permitted Satan to move, by withdrawing himself from David. God moved permissivè, Satan efficaciter: God suffered, Satan tempted; for God is often in scripture said to do that which he doth but permit to be done; as to `Awaken the sword against the man his fellow, Zech. xiii. 7, that is, to stir up all that rage which was exercised upon Christ; and the reason of such expressions is because of the activeness of his providence in and about sin, for he doth not barely permit it, but dispose circumstances and occasions, and limit and overrule it, so as it may be for good. Thus also Ps. cv. 25, `He turned their heart to hate his people, and to deal subtilely with his servants., The meaning is, God only offereth the occasion by doing good to his people. The Egyptians pursued them out of envy and jealousy. God, I say, only gave the occasion, did not restrain their malice; therefore he is said to do it. There are other places which imply that God hardeneth, blindeth sinners, delivereth them over to a reprobate sense, sendeth them a strong delusion; as Rom. i. 2; Thes. ii. 11, and in many other places. I answer in general to them all:—God, by doing these things, doth not tempt the good that they may become evil, but only most justly punisheth the evil with evil: this hardening, blinding, is not a withdrawing a good quality from them, but a punishment according to their wickedness. Particularly God is said to harden, as he doth not soften; he doth not infuse evil, but only withhold grace; hardness of heart is man's sin, but hardening, God's judgment. So again, God is said to make blind as he doth not enlighten, as freezing and darkness follow upon the absence of the sun: he doth not infuse evil, nor take away any good thing from them, but only refuseth to give them more grace, or to confirm them in the good they have. So also God is said to give up to lusts when he doth not restrain us, but leaveth us to our own sway and the temptations of Satan. So God is said to send a strong lie when he suffereth us to be carried away with it. God in deed foreseeth and knoweth how we will behave ourselves upon these temptations, but the foresight of a thing doth not cause it.

Some urge that 1 Kings xxii. 22, `Thou shalt be a lying spirit; go forth and do so, and thou shalt prevail with him., But that is only a parabolical scheme of providence, and implieth not a charge and commission so much as a permission.

Others urge those places which do directly seem to refer sin to God; as Gen. xlv. 5, 8, `Be not grieved nor offended, it was not you that sent me hither; it was not you, but God., The very sending, which was a sinful act, is taken off from man and appropriated to God. So 1 Kings xii. 15, `The king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was from the Lord;, that rebellion there is said to be from the Lord. I answer—These things are said to be of the Lord because he would dispose of them to his own glory, and work out his own designs and decrees. There are some other places urged, as where God is said to deliver Christ, to bruise and afflict him, which was an evil act, &c.; but these only imply a providential assistance and co-operation, by which God concurreth to every action of the creatures, as shall be cleared elsewhere.

II. I am to state the efficiency and concurrence of God about sin. All that God doth in it may be given you in these propositions:—

1. It is certain that without God sin would never be; without his prohibition an action would not be sinful. The apostle saith, `Where is no law, there is no transgression;, but I mean chiefly without his permission and fore-knowledge, yea, and I may add, without his will and concurrence, without which nothing can happen and fall out; it can not be beside the will of God, for then he were not omniscient; or against his will, for then he were not omnipotent. There is no action of ours but needeth the continued concurrence and supportation of his providence; and if he did not uphold us in being and working, we could do nothing.

2. Yet God can by no means be looked upon as the direct author of it, or the proper cause of that obliquity that is in the actions of the creatures; for his providence is conversant about sin without sin, as a sunbeam lighteth upon a dunghill without being stained by it. This is best cleared by a collection and summary of all those actions where by, from first to last, providence is concerned in man's sin; which are briefly these:—

[1.] Fore-knowledge and pre-ordination. God intended and ap pointed that it should be. Many that grant prescience deny preordination, lest they should make God the author of sin; but these fear where no fear is. The scripture speaketh roundly, ascribing both to God: `Him being delivered by the fore-knowledge and determinate counsel of God, Acts ii. 23. Mark, Peter saith, not only τῇ προγνώσει, `by the fore-knowledge, but τῇ προγνώσει, `determinate counsel, which implieth a positive decree. Now that cannot infer any guilt or evil in God, for God appointed it, as he meant to bring good out of it. Wicked men have quite contrary ends. Thus Joseph speaketh to his brethren, when they were afraid of his revenge, Gen l. 19, `Am I in the place of God?, that is, was it my design to bring these things to pass, or God's decree? and who am I, that I should resist the will of God? And then again, ver. 20, `But as for you, ye thought evil; but God meant it for good, to bring it to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive;, that is, God decreed it otherwise than you designed it: your aim was wholly evil, his good.

[2.] There is a permission of it. God's decrees imply that sin shall be, but they do not impel or enforce; for he leaveth us to the liberty of our own hearts, and our own free choice and work; he is resolved not to hinder us: Acts xiv. 16, `He suffered them to walk in their own ways., God was not bound to hinder it, therefore permission in God can not be faulty;, Who hath given him first?, Were grace a debt, it were injustice to withhold it; and did God act out of a servile necessity, the creatures might reject the blame of their miscarriages upon the faintness of his operation: but God being free, neither obliged by necessity of nature, nor any external rule and law, nor by any foregoing merit of the creatures, may do with his own as it pleaseth him; and it is a shameless impudence in man to blame God because he is free, when himself cannot endure to be bound.

[3.] There is a concurrence to the action, though not to the sinfulness of it. It is said, Acts xvii. 28, `In him we live, move, and have our being., When God made the creatures, he did not make them independent and absolute: we had not only being from him, but still we have it in him; we are in him, we live in him, and we move in him, κινούμεθα—we are moved or acted in him. All created images and appearances are but like the impress of a seal upon the waters: take away the seal, and the form vanisheth; subtract the influence of providence, and presently all creatures return to their first nothing; therefore to every action there needeth the support and concurrence of God: so that the bare action or motion is good, and from God; but the de-ordination, and obliquity of it, is from man; it cometh from an evil will, and therein is discerned the free work of the creatures.

[4.] There is a desertion of a sinner, and leaving of him to himself. God may suspend, yea, and withdraw, grace out of mere sovereignty; that is, because he will: but he never doth it but either out of justice or wisdom; out of wisdom, for the trial of his children, as, in the business of the ambassadors, `God left Hezekiah, that he might know what was in his heart, 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. So sometimes in justice, to punish the wicked; as Ps. lxxxi. 12, `I gave them up to their own hearts, lusts, and they walked in their own counsels., When grace is withdrawn, which should moderate and govern the affections, man is left to the sway and impetuous violence of his own lusts. Now God cannot be blamed in all this, partly because he is not bound to give or continue grace: partly because, when common light and restraints are violated, he seemeth to be bound rather to withdraw what is already given; and when men put finger in the eye of nature, God may put it out, that they that will not, may not see; and if the hedge be continually broken, it is but justice to pluck it up; and then if the vineyard be eaten down, who can be blamed? Isa. v. 5: partly be cause the subsequent disorders do arise from man's own counsel and free choice; therefore upon this tradition of God's it is said, `They walked in their own counsels;, that is, according to the free motion and inclination of their own spirits.