Thomas Manton · 14 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter I. · Part 11

Use 1. Oh that we were wise, then, to rise against sin betimes! That we would `take the little foxes, Cant. ii. 15; even the first appearances of corruption! That we would `dash Babylon's brats against the stone!, Ps. cxxxvii. Hugo's gloss is pious, though not so suitable to the scope of that place: sit nihil in te Bdbylonicum—the least of Babylon must be checked; not only the grown men, but dash the little ones against the stone. A Christian's life should be spent in watching lust. The debates of the soul are quick, and soon ended, and, without the mercy of God, that may be done in little more than an instant that may undo us for ever. It is dangerous to `give place to Satan, Eph. iv. 27. The devil will draw us from motions to action, and from thence to reiteration, till our hearts be habituated and hardened within us: Eccles. x. 13, `The beginning of a foolish man's speech is foolishness, but the latter end is foolish madness., From folly they go on to downright passion. Small breaches in a sea-bank occasion the ruin of the whole, if not timely repaired. Sin gaineth upon us by insensible degrees, and those that are once in Satan's snare are soon taken by him at his will and pleasure.

Use 2. It reproveth them that boldly adventure upon a sin because of the smallness of it; besides, the offence done to God, in standing with him for a trifle, as the `selling of the righteous, is aggravated in the prophet by the little advantage, `for a pair of shoes., Consider the danger to yourselves. Great faults do not only ruin the soul, but lesser; dallying with temptations is of a sad consequence. Caesar was killed with bodkins. Look, as it is murder to stifle an infant in the womb, so it is spiritual murder to suppress and choke the conceptions of the Spirit; but, on the other side, it is but a necessary rigour to dash Babylon's brats, and to suppress sin in the conception and growth, ere it be ripened and perfected. We are so far to abhor sin as to beware of the remote tendencies; yea, to avoid `the occasions of it, 1 Thes. v. 22. If it be but malè coloratum, as Bernard glosseth, of an ill look and complexion, it is good to stand at a distance.

Obs. 2. Lust is fully conceived and formed in the soul, when the will is drawn to consent; the decree in the will is the ground of all practice. Look, as duties come off kindly when once there is a decree in the will: Ps. xxxii. 5, `I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord., David had gotten his will to consent to acts of repentance, and then he could no longer keep silence: so, on the other side, all acts of sin are founded in the fixed choice and resolution of the will. `I will pursue, I will overtake, said mad Pharaoh, Exod. xv. 9; and that engaged him in acts of violence. Now this decree of the will is most dangerous in the general choice of our way and course; for as religion lieth in the settled resolution of the soul, when we make it our work and business, as Barnabas exhorted the new converts, `that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, Acts xi. 23, τῇ προθέσι τῆς καρδίας, that they would resolvedly decree for God in the will; so, when the apostle speaketh of his holy manner of life, he calleth it προθέσιν, his purpose, 2 Tim. iii. 10. So also the state of sin lieth in a worldly or carnal choice; as the apostle saith, 1 Tim. vi. 9, `He that will be rich;, that is, that hath decreed and fixed a resolution in his soul to make it his only study and care to grow rich and get an estate, he is altogether carnal. A child of God may be overborne, but usually he doth not fix his will: Rom. vii. 16, `I do that which I would not;, or, if his will be set, yet there is not a full consent, for there will be continual dislikes from the new nature. I confess sometimes, as there is too much of deliberation and counsel in the sins of God's children (as you know David's sin was a continued series and plot), so too much of resolution and the will; but this is in acts of sin, not in the course and state; their manner of life and purpose is godly. Well, then, if lust hath insinuated into your thoughts, labour to keep it from a decree, and gaining the consent of the will. Sins are the more heinous as they are the more resolved and voluntary.

Obs. 3. What is conceived in the heart is usually brought forth in the life and conversation. `Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin., That is the reason why the apostle Peter directeth a Christian to spend the first care about the heart: 1 Peter ii. 11, 12, `Abstain from fleshly lusts, and then `have your conversations honest., As long as there is lust in the heart, there will be no cleanness in the conversation; as worms in wood will at length cause the rottenness to appear. How soon do lusts bewray themselves! Pride runneth into the eyes, therefore we read of `haughty eyes, Prov. vi. 17, or into the feet, causing a strutting gait or gesture. A wanton mind peepeth out through wanton eyes and a gazing look. A garish, frothy spirit bewrayeth itself in the vanity of apparel, and a filthy heart in the rottenness of communication; the eyes, the feet, the tongue, the life do easily bewray what is seated in the heart. Momus, in the fable, quarrelled with God for not making a window at every man's breast, that others might see what was in it. There needeth no such discovery. Time showeth what births there are in the womb; so will the life what lusts are conceived and fostered in the heart, for lust delighteth to bring forth. Well, then:—

1. Learn that hypocrites cannot always be hidden, disguises will fall off. Men flatter themselves in their hidden sins, but they will be `found hateful, Ps. xxxvi. 2; that is, scandalous and inconvenient. God hath peremptorily determined that `their wickedness shall be showed before the congregation, Prov. xxvi. 26. Some misbehaviour will bring it to light; art and fiction is not durable. The apostle saith, 1 Tim. v. 25, `They that are otherwise cannot be hidden;, that is, otherwise than good.

2. Learn the danger of neglecting lusts and thoughts. If these be not suppressed, they will ripen into sins and acts of filthiness. While we are negligent and our care is intermitted, the business of sin thriveth and goeth on. Allowed thoughts bring the mind and the temptation together. David mused on Bathsheba's beauty, and so was all on fire. It is ill dallying with thoughts.

3. Learn what a mercy it is to be hindered of our evil intentions, that sinful conceptions are still-born, and when we wanted no lust we should want an occasion. Mere restraints are a blessing. We are not so evil as otherwise we would be. Lust would bring forth. God would have Abimelech to acknowledge mercy in a restraint: Gen. xx. 6, `I withheld thee from sinning against her., David blessed God that the rash executions of his rage were prevented: `Blessed be the God of Israel, which sent thee to meet me this day, 1 Sam. xxv. 32. God smote Paul from his horse, and so took him off from persecution, when his heart boiled with rancour and malice against the saints, Acts ix. Oh! take notice of such instances when your way of sin hath been hedged up by providence, Hosea ii. 6; and though lusts be not checked, yet the execution is disappointed: you were mad, and should have gone on furiously, but that God `fenced up your way with thorns.,

Obs. 4. That the result and last effect of sin is death; so the apostle Paul, Rom. vi. 21, `The end of these things is death., It cometh with a pleasing and delightful sweetness, promising nothing but satisfaction and contentment, but the end is death. So Ezek. xviii. 4, `The soul that sinneth it shall die., It is an express law that brooketh only the exception of free grace; it shall die temporally, die eternally. This is a principle impressed upon nature; the very heathens were sensible of it: Rom. i. 32, `Knowing that they which commit such things are worthy of death., Mark, the apostle saith the heathens knew it. Conscience, being sensible of the wrong done to the godhead, could fear nothing less from angry justice. Draco, the rigid law giver, being asked why, when sins were equal, he appointed death to all? answered, He knew that sins were not all equal, but he knew the least deserved death. This was that that made the heathens at such a loss for a satisfaction to divine justice, because they could find none sufficient to redeem their guilty souls from the dread of death; and therefore the first effect of the blood of Christ upon the conscience is `purging from dead works, Heb. ix. 14; that is, from that sentence of death which the conscience receiveth by reason of our works. The Papists on this point, worse than the heathen, hold some sins venial in their own nature. It is true, it is said, 1 John v. 17, `There is a sin not unto death;, but that place speaketh of the event, not the merit; words, evil thoughts, the least sins, deserve death. Do not think God will be so extreme. If you have no better plea, that will be a sorry refuge in the day of wrath. David a Mauden, a learned Papist, saith, Those sins are only to be counted mortal—;(1.) Which are said to be an abomination to God, and hated by him, in scripture; (2.) To which a Voe, or woe, is expressly denounced; or (3.), Are distinctly said to be worthy of eternal death; or (4.) To exclude and shut out from the kingdom of heaven; or (5.) Such as by the law of nature are directly repugnant to the love of God or our neighbour. But, alas! all this is to be wise without the word. It is true God hath expressly declared more of his displeasure against these sins than others, and therefore we are more ^ound and engaged to avoid them, but they are all mortal in their merit.

Use 1. It teacheth us how to stop the violence of lust; this will be death and damnation. Oh! consider it, an^l se t it as a flaming sword in the way of your carnal delights. Observe how wisely God hath ordered it, much of sin is pleasant; ay! but there is death in the pot, and so fear may counterbalance delight. Another part of sin is serious, as worldliness, in which there is no gross act, and so there being nothing foul to work upon shame, there is something dreadful to work upon fear. Well, then, awaken the soul; consider what Wisdom saith, Prov. viii. 36, `He that forsaketh me loveth death., It is against nature for a creature to love its own death; all natural motions are for self-preservation. Oh! why then should I satisfy my flesh to endanger my soul? God himself puts on a passion, and reasoneth thus with us, Ezek. xxxiii. 11, `Why will ye die, O house of Israel?, Why will you wilfully throw away your own souls? Why will ye for a superfluous cup adventure to drink a cup of wrath unmixed? For a little estate in the world make hell your portion? It is sweet for the present, but it will be death. Sin's best are soon spent, the worst is always behind.

Use 2. It showeth what reason we have to mortify sin lest it mortify us; no sins are mortal but such as are not mortified; either sin must die, or the sinner. The life of sin and the life of a sinner are like two buckets in a well—if the one goeth up the other must come down. When sin liveth the sinner must die. There is an evil in sin and an evil after sin. The evil in sin is the violation of God's law, and the evil after sin is the just punishment of it. Now, those that are not sensible of the evil in sin shall be sensible of the evil after sin. To the regenerate person, all God's dispensations are to save the person and destroy the sin, Ps. xcix. 8: `Thou wast a God that forgavest them, and tookest vengeance of their inventions., God spared the sinner and took vengeance on the sin; but the unmortified person spareth his sins, and his life goeth for it; as the apostle Paul speaketh of himself when the power of the word came first upon him, Rom. vii. 9, `Sin revived and I died., Sin was exasperated, and he felt nothing but terror and condemnation. Oh! then, consider it is better sin should be condemned than you should be condemned; as the apostle speaketh of the condemnation of sin, Rom. viii. 3, `For sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;, that is, Christ being made a sacrifice for sin, sin was condemned to save the sinner. Reason thus within yourselves: It is better sin should die than I should die: `Thy life goes for its life, as it is in the prophet's parable, 1 Kings xx. 39; therefore let me destroy my sin, that my soul may escape.

Use 3. Bless God that hath delivered you out of a sinful state; your soul hath escaped a snare of death. Oh! never look back upon Sodom but with detestation; bless God that you are escaped: `Blessed be the Lord that gave me counsel in my reins, Ps. xvi. 7. I might have been Satan's bond-slave, lust's vassal, and have earned no other wages but my own death, but he hath called me to life and peace. Conversion is onewhere expressed by a `calling out of darkness into a marvellous light, that is much; but in another, by a `translating from death to life, that is more. It is no less a change than from death to life. I might have wasted away my days in pleasure and vanity, and afterwards gone to hell. `Oh! blessed be the name of God for evermore, that hath delivered me from so great a death!,

Ver. 16. Do not err, my beloved brethren.

The apostle having disputed the matter with them about God being the author of sin, he dissuadeth them from this blasphemy. There is no difficulty in this verse.

Do not err, μὴ πλανᾶσθε, do not wander; a metaphor taken from sheep, and sometimes it noteth errors in practice, or going off from the word as a rule of righteousness, as it is said, Isa. lxiii. 17, `We have erred from thy ways;, sometimes errors in judgment, or going off from the word as the standard and measure of truth, which we most commonly express by this term `error.,

My beloved brethren.—Dealing with them about an error, he dealeth with them very meekly, and therefore is the compilation so loving and sweet.

This verse will afford some points.

Obs. 1. It is not good to brand things with the name of error till we have proved them to be so. After he had disputed the matter with them, he saith, `Err not., (1.) Loose slings will do no good. To play about us with terms of heresy and error doth but prejudice men's minds, and exulcerate them against our testimony. None but fools will be afraid of hot words. Discoveries do far better than invectives. Usually that is a peevish zeal that stayeth in generals. It is observable, Mat. xxiii., from ver. 13 to 33, our Saviour denounceth never a woe but he presently rendereth a reason for it. `Woe unto you, for ye shut the kingdom of heaven;, and again, `Woe unto you, for ye devour widows, houses, &c. You never knew a man gained by loose slings. The business is to make good the charge, to discover what is heresy and what is antichristianism, &c. (2.) This is an easy way to blemish the holy truths of God. How often do the Papists spread that livery upon us, heretics and schismatics. They `speak evil of things they do not know, Jude 10. When men are loath to descend to the trial of a way, they blemish it: Acts xxiv. 14, `After the way which they call heresy we worship the God of our fathers., Men condemn things suddenly and rashly, and so often truth is miscalled. If matters were dispatched by arguments rather than censures, we should have less differences. The most innocent truths may suffer under an odious imputation. The spouse had her veil taken from her, and represented to the world as a prostitute, Cant. iii. The Christians were called Genus hominum superstitionis malificae, a wicked sort of men, and Christianity a witchery and superstition.

Use. Oh! then, that in this age we would practise this: Be less in passion and more in argument. That we would condemn things by reasoning rather than miscalling. That we were less in generals, and would deal more particularly. This is the way to `stablish men in the present truth., In morals, the word seldom doth good but when it is brought home to the very case. Thunder at a distance doth not move us so much as a clap in our own zenith; that maketh us startle. General invectives make but superficial impressions; show what is an error, and then call it so. Truly that was the way in ancient times. At first, indeed, for peace, sake, some have observed that the fathers declaimed generally against errors about the power of nature, not meddling with the persons or particular tenets of Pelagius and his disciples; but afterward they saw cause for being more particular. Loose discourses lose their profit. Blunt iron, that toucheth many points at once, doth not enter, but make a bruise; but a needle, that toucheth but one point, entereth to the quick. When we come to deal particularly with every man's work, then the fire trieth it, 1 Cor. iii. 13. I do the rather urge this because usually ungrounded zeal stayeth in generals, and those that know least are most loose and invective in their discourses.

Obs. 2. We should as carefully avoid errors as vices; a blind eye is worse than a lame foot, yea, a blind eye will cause it; he that hath not light is apt to stumble: Rom. i. 26 , first they were given up, εἰς νοῦν ἀδόκιμον, `to a vain mind, and then `to vile affections., Some opinions seem to be remote, and to lie far enough from practice, and yet they have an influence upon it; they make the heart foolish, and then the life will not be right. There is a link and cognation between truth and truth, as there is between grace and grace; and therefore speculative errors do but make way for practical. Again, there are some errors that seem to encourage strictness, as free-will, universal grace, &c.; but, truly weighed, they are the greatest discouragement; and therefore it hath been the just judgment of God that the broachers of such opinions have been most loose in life, and (as the apostle Peter maketh it the character of all erroneous persons, 2 Peter ii.) vain and sensual. The apostle Paul presseth strictness, and our work the more earnestly, because God must work all, Phil. ii. 12, 13. Well, then, beware of erroneous conceits; your spirit is embased by them. Men think nothing is to be shunned but what is foul in act, and so publicly odious. Consider, there is `filthiness in the spirit, as well as `in the flesh, 2 Cor. vii. 1; and a vain mind is as bad and as odious to God as a vicious life. Error and idolatry will be as dangerous as drunkenness and whoredom; and therefore you should as carefully avoid them that would entice you to errors, as those that will draw you to sin and profaneness; for error, being the more plausible of the two, the delusion is the more strong: natural conscience will smite for profaneness. Many, I am persuaded, dally with opinions, because they do not know the dangerous result of them: all false principles have a secret but pestilent influence on the life and conversation.

Obs. 3. Do not err; that is, do not mistake in this matter, because it is a hard thing to conceive how God concurreth to the act, and not to the evil of the act; how he should be the author of all things, and not the author of sin: therefore he saith, however it be difficult to conceive, yet `Do not err., The note is, that where truths cannot be plainly and easily made out to the apprehension, men are apt to swerve from them. Many truths suffer much because of their intricacy , errors may be so near alike that it is hard to distinguish them: the nature of man is prone to error, and therefore when the truth is hard to find out, we content ourselves with our own prejudices. All truths are encumbered with such a difficulty that they which have a mind to doubt and wrangle do easily stumble at it: John vi. 60, `This is a hard saying; who can hear it?, that is, understand it; and then, ver. 66, `From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him., When there is something to justify our prejudices, we think we are safe enough. God leaveth justly such difficulties for a stumbling-block to them that have a mind to be offended. The Pharisees and people that had followed Christ thought themselves well enough, because of the darkness of those expressions, as if it did justify their apostasy; so when there are some involucra veritatis, some covers of difficulty, in which truth is lapped up from a common eye, we think our assent may be excused: as Jews say, that surely Christ was not the Messiah, because he did not come in such a way as to satisfy all his own countrymen; so many refuse truth because it will require some industry and exercise to find it out. God never meant to satisfy hominibus praefracti ingenii, men of a captious and perverse wit; and therefore truth is represented in such a manner, that though there be plainness enough to those that have a mind to know, yet difficulty enough to harden others to their own ruin. Men would fain spare the pains of prayer, study, and discourse; they are loath to `cry for knowledge, to dig for it as for silver, Prov. ii. 4; they love an easy, short way to truth, and therefore run away with those mistakes which come next to hand, vainly imagining that God doth not require belief to such things as are difficult and hard to be understood; they do not look to what is sound and solid, but what is plausible, and at first blush reconcilable with their thoughts and apprehensions.

Use 1. You see, then, what need you have to pray for gifts of interpretation, and a `door of utterance, for your ministers, and a knowing heart for yourselves, that you may not be discouraged by the difficulties that fence up the way of truth. Pray that God would give us a clear spirit, a plain expression, and yourselves a right understanding; this will be better than to cavil at the dispensation of God, that he should leave the world in such doubt and suspense. Chrysostom observeth, that the saints do not pray, Lord, make a plainer law, but, Lord, open my eyes, that I may see the wonders of thy law; as David doth. It were an unjust demand for blind men, or they that willingly shut their eyes, to desire God to make such a sun that they might see; it is better to desire gifts of the Spirit for the minister, that the scriptures might be opened; and the grace of the Spirit for ourselves, that our understandings might be opened, that so we may come to discern the mind of God.

Use 2. It showeth how much they are to blame that darken truth, and make the things of God the more obscure. `They darken counsel by words, that by method or manner of speaking perplex the understanding, that people can hardly reach the letter of things delivered. Many men have a faculty to raise a cloud of dust with their own feet, and so darken the brightness and glory of the scriptures; certainly such men either envy the commonness of knowledge, or serve their own esteem, when they draw all things to a difficulty, and would seem to swim there, where they may easily wade, yea, pass over dry-shod.

Obs. 4. Again, from that do not err. Take in the weightiness of the matter. Ah! would you err in this point, in a business that doth so deeply intrench upon the honour of God? The mistake being so dangerous, he is the more earnest. Oh! do not err. The note is, that errors about the nature of God are very dangerous. There is nothing more natural to us than to have ill thoughts of God, and nothing more dangerous; all practice dependeth upon it, to keep the glory of God unstained in your apprehensions. You shall see, Rom. i. 23, 24, `They changed the glory of God, &c., and then `God gave them up to uncleanness., Idolatry is often expressed by whoredom; bodily and spiritual uncleanness usually go together: ill thoughts of God debauch the spirit, and make men lose their sense and care of piety. Well, then, take heed of erring this error: let not the nature or glory of God be blemished in your thoughts; abhor whatever cometh into your mind, or may be suggested by others, if it tend any way to abate your esteem of God, or to eclipse the divine glory in your apprehensions.

06s. 5. From that my beloved brethren. Gentle dealing will best become dissuasives from error. One saith, we must speak to kings, φήμασι βυσσίωοις, with silken words. Certainly we had need to use much tenderness to persons that differ from us, speak to them in silken words. Where the matter is like to displease, the manner should not be bitter: pills must be sugared, that they may down the better: many a man hath been lost through violence: you engage them to the other party. As Tertullian, when he had spoken favourably of the Montanists, by the violence of the priests of Rome he was forced into their fellowship. Meekness may gain those that are not engaged. Men of another party will think all is spoken out of rage and anger against them; it is good to give them as little cause as may be, especially if but inclining through weakness to an error. Oh! `do not err, my beloved brethren., I would to God we could learn this wisdom in this age: 2 Tim. ii. 25, `In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth., Others will brook sharpness better than they: every man that is of a contrary opinion thinketh feat he hath the advantage ground of another, as being in the right; and pride is always touchy. Outward gross sins fill the soul with more shame, and upon conviction there is not that boldness of reply; for a man is so far under another as he may be reproved by him: but now here, where every man thinketh himself upon equal or higher terms, we had need deal the more meekly, lest pride take prejudice, and, out of a distaste of the manner, snuff at the matter itself: but of this elsewhere.

Ver. 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

He taketh occasion from the former matter, which was to show you that God was not the author of sin, to show you that God is the author of all good, especially the spiritual gifts and graces bestowed on us; in which there is an argument secretly couched: the author of all good cannot be the author of evil. Now `every good and perfect gift, is of God; and because the argument should be the more strong by an allusion to the sun, he representeth God, in the latter part of the verse, as essentially and immutably good.

Every good gift.—The vulgar readeth `the best gift, properly enough to the sense, but not to the original words. The gift is called good, either—;(1.) To exclude those gifts of Satan which are indeed injuries rather than gifts: a blind mind, 2 Cor. iv. 4; unruly affections, Eph. ii. 2. These gifts, that are from beneath, are not good. (2.) To note the kind of gifts which he speaketh of; not common mercies, but good gifts, such as the apostle calleth elsewhere πνευματικὰς εὐλογίας, `spiritual blessings, Eph. i. 3. It is true all common gifts come from the divine bounty; but the apostle intendeth here special blessings, as appeareth partly by the attributes `good, and `perfect., It is true some distinguish between the two clauses, δόσις ἀγαθὴ, or `good gift, to imply earthly blessings, and δώρημα τέλειον `perfect gift, to imply heavenly or spiritual blessings; but I suppose that is too curious. These two words imply the same mercies with a different respect, as by and by; partly because such mercies suit with the context, look upon it forward or backward. In the foregoing verses he speaketh about God being the author of sin, and no argument is so fit to batter down that conceit as that God is the author of special and saving grace; and in the following verse he instanceth in regeneration, partly because those mercies are most clearly from God, and need little of the concurrence of second causes.