Thomas Manton · 23 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter I. · Part 20

Well, then—;(1.) Let us more and more grow weary of the world. A man that would always live here is like a scullion that loveth to lie among the pots. In those blessed mansions that are above, `there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, Rev. xxi. 27. There we shall have pure company, and be out of the reach and danger of temptations. There are no devils in heaven; they were cast out long since, 2 Peter ii. 6, and you are to fill up their vacant rooms and places. The devil, when he was not fit for heaven, he was cast into the world, a fit place for misery, sin, and torment; and now this is the devil's walk. He compasseth the earth to and fro. Who would be in love with a place of bondage? with Satan's diocese? that odd, dirty corner of the universe, where a man can hardly move back or forth, but he shall be defiled? (2.) While we live here, let us keep ourselves as unspotted as we can. In a place of snares, we should walk with the more care: Rev. iii. 4, `There are a few names that have not defiled their garments; they shall walk with me in white., There are some, though few, that escape the taint of the world. You are kept by the power of God; yet, in some sense, you must keep yourselves: you are to `watch, and keep your garments, Rev. xvi. 15. You are to act faith upon the victory of Christ, by which `he hath overcome the world, 1 John v, 4. You are to commend yourselves to God in prayer, that he may keep and `present you faultless before the presence of his glory, Jude 24. You are to discourse upon the promises, and to work them into your hearts by spiritual reasoning, that you may `escape the corruption that is in the world through lust, 2 Peter i. 4, and 2 Cor. vii. 1. You are to avoid communion with the lepers of the world: we should learn a holy pride, and scorn such company. A man that keepeth ill company is like him that walketh in the sun, tanned insensibly. All these things you must do. It is a folly to think that because the power is from God, therefore the care should not be in ourselves.