Thomas Manton · 27 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter II. · Part 4

Out of this verse observe:—

Obs. 1. That the vilest wickedness will have a fair covert and pretence. Sin loves to walk under a disguise; the native face of it is ugly and odious. Therefore Satan in policy, and our hearts deceived by ignorance and self-love, seek to mask and hide it, that we may spare ourselves, which should press us to the greater heed. Never seek a cover of duty for a vile practice, and to excuse checks of conscience by some pretence from the law. It is Satan's cunning some times to dress up sins in the form and appearance of duty, and at other times to represent duty in the garb of sin: as Christ's healing on the Sabbath day. Be the more suspicious, especially in a matter wherein your private advantage is concerned, lest base compliance be reputed a necessary submission, and unjust gain be counted godliness. Examine the nature of the practice by the rule, Is the royal law appliable to such servility? And examine your own hearts. Is my aim right as well as my action? It is not enough to do what the law requires, but it must be done in that manner which the law requireth. Matter of duty may be turned into sin, where the respect and aim is carnal.

Obs. 2. That coming to the law is the best way to discover self-deceits. If it be according to the law (saith the apostle), it is well. Paul died by the coming of the commandment, Rom. vii. 9; that is, in conviction upon his heart; saw himself in a dead and lost estate. So Rom. iii. 20, `By the law is the knowledge of sin;, and therefore we should often talk with the commandment, consult with it in all practices.

Obs. 3. That the Lord's law is a royal law. (1.) It hath a kingly author. The solemn motive to obedience is, `I am the Lord., Marcion blasphemed in saying the law came from an evil God. Many now speak so contemptuously of it as if they had a Marcionite's spirit. The same Lord Jesus that gave the gospel gave also the law. Therefore it is so often said, Acts vii., that the law was `given by an angel;, that is, the angel of the covenant. So Heb. xii. 25 to end; the apostle proves that it was the voice of the Lord Jesus that shook Mount Sinai. It is a known rule in divinity that the Father never appeared in any shape, and therefore that all those apparitions in the Old Testament were of the second person. (2.) It requires noble work, fit for kings; service most proportioned to the dignity of a man's spirit. Service is an honour, and duty a privilege: Hosea viii. 12, `The great things, (it is in the vulgar honorabilia legis, the honourable things) `of my law., It is said of Israel that no nation was so high in honour above all nations, because they had God's statutes, which was `their wisdom, Deut. vii. The brightest part of God's glory is his holiness; and therefore it is said, `Glorious in holiness;, and it is our dignity to be holy. That must needs be a royal law that maketh all those kings that fulfil it. (3.) There is royal wages; no less than all of you to be made kings and princes unto God: `Enter into the kingdom prepared for you;, and, `henceforth is laid up for me a crown, 2 Tim. iv. 8. This is the entertainment that ye shall have from God hereafter, to be all crowned kings and princes. Oh! then, give the law this honour in your thoughts. Naturally men adore strictness. How great is the excellency of God's statutes! Check yourselves, that you can no more come under the power of them. In the ways of sin you have a bad master, worse work, and the worst wages. There is a bad master: `His lusts will ye do, John viii. 44; they are Satan's lusts, he is the author of them. There is bad work; sin is the greatest bondage and thraldom, 2 Peter ii. 18, the heart naturally riseth against it. Then there is bad wages: Rom. vi., `The wages of sin is death., Well, then, press these disproportions, and say, `What evil have I found in God?, Jer. ii. 5. Hath God or sin been a land of darkness to me? I have served him these eighty years (said Polycarp), καὶ οθ̓κ ἠδίκησε μὲ, and he never did me harm. Reason with yourselves: Will you sin against a royal Lord, such royal work, such a royal reward?

Obs. 4. That the rule that God hath left us is laid down in the scriptures; there is the signification of his will, and from thence must it be sought: they are `able to make the man of God perfect.,

Obs. 5. The scriptures require we should love our neighbour as ourselves. Paul saith, Gal. v. 14, `All the law is fulfilled in one word: love thy neighbour as thyself., All the law, that is, all that part of the law which concerns our duty towards others; or all the law, by worshipping God, in discharging our duty towards man, and so turning both tables into one. And Christ saith, Mat. vii. 12, `This is the law, and the prophets,—that is, the sum of the whole word, and that standard of equity which is erected therein—that `whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them:, for which saying Severus reverenced Christ and Christianity. But must a man \love his neighbour with the same proportion of care and respect that he doth himself? The special love of a man to his wife is expressed by this, Eph. v. 28, `So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies;, and the Hebrew expression is the same in all other places: `Let him love his neighbour as his own body., And must he now love every one with those singular respects and proportions of affection that he beareth to himself and his wife?

I answer—The strictness of the precept should not amaze us. Christ raiseth it one peg higher: John xiii. 34, `I have given you a commandment, that as I have loved you, so ye should love one another., There is another manner of pattern: Christ's love was intense, and the measure of it beyond the conceit of our thoughts: Yet as I love, so must ye love one another.

But for the opening of this matter, I shall first show you, Who is your neighbour; secondly. What kind of love is required to him.

First, Who is your neighbour?—a question necessary to be propounded. It was propounded to Christ himself: Luke x. 29, `Who is my neighbour?, The solution may be gathered out of Christ's answer. First, In the general, every man to whom I may be helpful; and the term neighbour is used because our charity is most exercised and drawn out to those that are near us, the objects that are about us. But it must not be confined there: for Christ proves that a stranger may be a neighbour, Luke x. 36. All people that have the face of a man are called `our flesh, Isa. lviii. 7, and `one blood, Acts xvii. 26—`one blood, cousins at a remoter distance. Any man is a neighbour in regard of the nearness of our first original, and as he is capable of the same glory and blessedness which we expect; and so a stranger, an enemy, may be a neighbour by the gospel rules, and an object of such love as we bear unto ourselves, we being bound to desire his good, by virtue of his manhood, as we would our own. Secondly, There are more especial neighbours, who dwell about us, and are more frequent with us, whose necessities must provoke us to more acts and expressions of love; and as they are more or less near unto us, so are we to proportion our love to them: those that dwell with us before strangers. Thus the Hebrews preferred the men of their own nation before the Grecians `in the daily ministration, Acts vi. And then our kindred, and those of our family, before a common neighbour; as the apostle saith, 1 Tim. v. 8, `If any man provideth not for his own, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel., He speaks upon the case of showing pity at home. And then our children are in the next rank before them; and the wife of the bosom before them all: and accordingly must all acts of bounty and provision be dispensed. Thirdly, There are spiritual neighbours, and they are those who are begotten by the same Spirit to the same hopes, who are to have a special preferment in our affection; I mean, in that kind of affection which is proper to Christianity: and for all outward acts of bounty and love, they are to have the pre-eminence, our children and families only excepted, which, by the law of nature, in this case are to be looked upon as a part of ourselves: Gal. vi. 10, `As we have opportunity, let us do good to all men; especially to the house hold of faith., In short, in the love of bounty, the poor and necessitous man is the special neighbour; in the love of delight, the godly man is to have the preferment: `My delights are to the excellent of the earth, Ps. xvi. 2. Which also is Bernard's determination, Meliori major affectus, indigentiori major effectus, tribuendus est—the best must have most of our affection, the poorest most of our bounty: Luke xiv. 12-14, `When thou makest a feast, call not thy rich neighbours, &c. He doth not condemn honest courtesies, but reproveth the Pharisees, error, who thought by these things to satisfy the commandment; just as these did here in the text, who would seem to make that an act of charity which was but an act of covetousness, and called that love which was base servility and compliance: and we still see that many esteem that Christian communion which is indeed but a carnal visit, and pretend courtesy to excuse charity.

Secondly, What kind of love is required in this expression, we are to love them as ourselves? I answer—The expression showeth the manner of our love, not the measure of it; a parity and likeness for kind, not for proportion. It cannot be understood in the same degree, partly because in some cases a man is bound to love his neighbour more than himself; as 1 John iii. 16, `We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, my single life to save^the whole community. And so we ought to help on one another's spiritual good with the loss of our temporal: we may expose ourselves to uncertain danger to hinder another's certain danger. The apostle Paul, in a glorious excess of charity, could prefer the common good of the salvation of all the Jews before the particular salvation of his own soul: Rom. ix. 3, `I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh;, and Moses, for the general safety of Israel, could wish himself to be `blotted out of God's book, Exod. xxxii. Cases may happen wherein a public good may be more considerable, and better in itself, than my particular happiness; and then in self-denial I am bound to love others better than myself. And partly because, on the other hand, in ordinary cases it is impossible I should be as strongly moved, or as industriously active, in another man's case as I would in my own; therefore, as I said, the rule intendeth the kind of affection, and the way of it; that is, with what mind and in what course I should pursue the good of others—with the same heart and in the same way I would mine own; and chiefly aimeth at the prevention of a double evil usual among men—self-love and injury: self-love, when men out of the privacy and narrowness of their spirits, only `mind their own things;, and injury, when men care not how they deal with others. First, It preventeth self-love by pressing us—(1.) To mind the good of others: 1 Cor. x. 24, `Let no man seek his own, but each man another's wealth, their comfort and contentment, by all offices of humanity suitable and convenient to their necessities; especially to promote their spiritual good, labouring to procure it, praying for them, though they be enemies, as David fasted for his enemies, Ps. xxxv. But alas! this love is quite decayed in these last ages of the world. ^They are mightily infamed in the scriptures for self-seeking, 2 Tim. iii. 2. One said, The world was once destroyed, propter ardorem cupidinis, with water for the heat of lust; and it will be again destroyed, propter teporem charitatis, with fire for the coldness of love. These duties are quite out of date and use. (2.) To mind their good really, as truly, though not as much. The apostle saith, `Let love be without dissimulation;, and St John speaketh often of `loving in truth., Though we are not every way as earnest, yet we must be as real in promoting their good as our own, without any self-end and reflections upon our own advantage and profit. Secondly, It preventeth injury, by directing us to deal with others as we would have them to deal with ourselves; wishing them no more hurt than we would wish our own souls: I mean, when we are in our right reason, and self-love is regular; hiding their defects and infirmities as you would your own; pardoning their offences as you desire God should do yours; and in all contracts and acts of converse putting your souls in their stead. Would I be thus dealt with? If I had my own choice, would not I be otherwise used? In all our commerce it is good to make frequent appeals to our consciences: Would I have this measure measured unto my own soul?

And thus I have opened the great rule of all commerce, `Love thy neighbour as thyself;, whose intent is, as I said, partly to prevent self-love, by showing we must do others good as well as ourselves; and partly to prevent injury, that we may do others no more evil than we do ourselves.

Ver. 9. But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the laic as transgressors.

Here is the second part of the apostle's answer. In the former part there was the concession, `Ye do well, if you give this respect in obedience to the law: but here is the correction; you give it contrary to the direction of the law, and so it is not a duty, but a sin.

But if ye have respect to persons; that is, if, in distributing the honours and censures of the church, you judge altogether according to men's outward quality and condition, as before was cleared—

Ye commit sin; that is, it is not a duty, as you pretend, but a sin; and, whatever you think, the law, which is the rule of Christ's process, will find you guilty.

And are convinced of the law.—This may be understood, either generally, that, whatever their pretences were, yet the law would find them out, and distinguish their unjust partiality from a necessary respect; or else, more especially, it may be understood of the law which they urged,; Love thy neighbour as thyself;, which required an equal respect to the neighbour, however distinguished, whether rich or poor; or else the apostle intendeth the law against respect of persons: Lev. xix. 15, `Thou shalt do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour., To which place I suppose the apostle alludeth, because it is so fair for his purpose, and because in that context the general of love to the neighbour is repeated, see ver. 18; and in that the Septuagint have the very same words which the apostle useth in ver. 8.

As transgressors.—Ὠς, the word in the original for as, implieth reality,not only similitude and likeness; that is, that you are indeed transgressors. I do the rather note it for the opening of a like expression in a matter important and weighty; it is in John i. 14, `We saw his glory, as the glory of the only-begotten Son of God;, that is, not like the glory of the Son of God, but that he was indeed so.

Little is to be observed out of this verse, because the matter of it is handled in the context. Only note:—

Obs. 1. That the word and rule discovereth wickedness when our blind consciences do not. Conscience hath but a weak light, and that light is partial: `Favour thyself, is the language of corrupt nature; and, therefore, that we may not be injurious to our own quiet, deluded conscience is apt to mistake every pretence for duty, and the outward work of every duty for the power and life of it; therefore the apostle saith of the heathens, that had but a little light, that they only minded ἔργον νόμου, `the work of the law., Rom. ii. 14; that is, the external matter of the commandment. Nay, those that have more light are every way as unfaithful in the use of it. Paul rested contented with his pharisaism and outward righteousness, till, by a serious application of the rule, he found that to be a merit of death which he had formerly reckoned upon as a plea for life. That I suppose he intendeth when he sayeth, `I was alive without the law, but the commandment coming, I died., Rom. vii. 9. Well, then, we see we have need to attend upon the word, and consult with the law, not the crooked rule of our own consciences.

Obs. 2. It is but a crafty pretence when one part of the law is pleaded to excuse obedience to another; for when we pick and choose, we do not fulfil God's will, but our own. These pretended submissive respect to the rich, as due by the law, but forgot those other precepts that established a duty to the poor. Conscience must be satisfied with something; therefore men usually please themselves in so much of obedience as is least contrary to their interests and inclinations, and have not an entire uniform respect to the whole law. It is as if a servant should think himself dutiful when he goeth to a feast or a fair when his master biddeth him; when, in the meantime, he declineth errands of less trouble, but of more service: whereas in such matters he doth not obey his master's will, but his own inclination. So in commands easy and compliant with our own humours and designs, we do not so much serve God as our own interests; and there is more of design than of duty and religion in such actions; and, therefore, they lose their reward with God. As to instance in a matter suitable to the context, God hath required that persons should be hospitable and harborous. Now men of a social nature will soon hear in that ear, and think themselves liberal and bountiful because they spend much in festivity and entertainment, or in feasting with their rich neighbours; whereas little or nothing is done out of a well-tempered charity, and in refreshing the poor members of Christ. Now this is no more accepted of God than the offering of a dog's head in sacrifice; because all this is but a lust fed and served under a pretence of religion—joviality under the disguise of Christian charity and bounty; and, therefore the apostle maketh entertainments to he hut `sowing to the flesh, Gal. vi. 8; for I suppose the drift of that context is to distinguish between what is spent in charity and luxury: and in the process of the last day (described Mat. xxv.), Christ doth not ask what thou hast done to the rich, but to his poor members—to the hungry, the naked, &c. Well, then, beware of such a partial, disproportionate obedience. Hypocrites use to divide between the tables—between duty to God and duty to man; and in the respects due to man they are swayed more by their own humours and interests than the true motives of obedience; and, therefore, though they usually exceed in their duty and submission to the rich, yet they neglect if not contemn the poor, either in their suffrages and elections to ecclesiastical honours and offices, or in acts of judicature, or in duties of private charity, in visits and entertainments; which respect of persons our apostle justly disproveth, taxing it for a transgression, and not a duty.

Ver. 10. For whosoever shall keep the whole laiv, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all.

The connection between this verse and the former is this: They had pleaded that their respect of the rich was but a necessary civility, and a duty of the law; or, at least, that it was but a small offence, such as might be excused by their innocent intention, and obedience in other things, which was an opinion rife in those days; and that some make to the occasion of this sentence, that the apostle might disprove that conceit which was then so common, that obedience in some things did make amends for their neglect and disobedience in other things. That the conceit was common appeareth by several passages of Christ and the apostles. Our Saviour chargeth it often upon the Pharisees. Ben Maimon, in his treatise of repentance, hath such a passage as this is: `Every one, saith he, `hath his merits and his sins., He whose merits are equal to his sins, he is tzadoc, the righteous man; he whose sins are greater than his merits, he is rashang, the wicked man; but where the sins and the merits are equal, he is the middle man, partly happy, and partly miserable., This was the sum of the Jewish doctrine in the more corrupt times; and some think the apostle might meet with this error in this verse, by showing that the least breach rendered a man obnoxious to the danger of the violation of the whole law. Rather, I suppose, it lieth thus: They satisfied themselves with half duty, using over-much observance to the rich, and to the poor nothing at all. He had before said, εἰ νόμον τελεῖτε βασίλικον, `If ye fulfil, or perfect, the royal law., Now, they minded that part of it that was advantageous to them; it was not full or perfect obedience to cut off so much of duty as was less profitable: therefore the law convinced them `as transgressors., The royal law saith, `Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;, and man is not to make such exceptions as please him best, to defalcate and cut off such a considerable part of duty at his own pleasure. God saith, `thy neighbour;, and I must not say, `my rich neighbour only., There must be an even and adequate care to comply with the whole will of God, or else it is not obedience, but you are in the danger of transgressors. This hint maketh much for the opening of the verse, a place in itself difficult. Augustine consulted with Jerome about the sense of it in a long epistle; and, indeed, at the first view, the sentence seemeth harsh and rough. I shall first open the phrases, remove false inferences from it, and then establish the true notes and observations, that this scripture may have its due and proper force upon the conscience.

Whosoever shall keep the whole law.—He speaketh upon supposition. Suppose a man should be exact in all other points of the law, which yet is impossible, we may suppose things that never shall be. Or else he speaketh according to their pretences and presumptions. They supposed they were not to be taxed or convinced as transgressors in any other matter: grant it, saith the apostle; or else he speaketh of the whole of this commandment, `Thou shalt love thy neighbour, &c. Suppose your duty to rich men, and where it may make for your advantage, be whole and entire.

Yet if he offend in one point.—Willingly, constantly, and with allowance from conscience; with thought of merit and excuse, because of his obedience in other matters.

He is guilty of all.—Liable to the same punishment, standeth upon the same terms of hope and acceptance with God, as if he had done nothing. A man may violate totam legem though not totum legis; sin against the dignity and authority of the whole law, though he doth not actually break every part of it. Ay! but you will say, as the apostles, Mat. xix., `Who then can be saved?, Here is a terrible sentence that will much discourage God's little ones, who are conscious to themselves of their daily failings. I answer—That which the apostle aimeth at is the discovery of hypocrites, not the discouragement of saints. As Zuinglius, when he had flashed the thunder and lightning of God in the face of sinners, he was wont to come in with this proviso, Bone Christiane, haec nihil ad te—poor Christian, this is not spoken to thee. So this is not spoken to discourage God's children, however it may be of use to them to make them more humble, cautious, and watchful, as lions will tremble when dogs are beaten. To clear the place, before I come to lay down the notes, I shall, according to promise, remove the false inferences. (1.) You cannot conclude hence that all sins are equal. They are all damning, not all alike damning. Some guilt may be more heinous, but all is deadly. And that is it which James asserteth: he saith, `he is guilty of all, but not equally guilty. The apostle would infer an equality of care and respect to the whole law, but not an equality of sin. All that can be collected is this, that one allowed, wilful, deliberate breach and violation forfeiteth our righteousness, and maketh us become obnoxious to the curse of the whole law, and the sinner shall no less die than if he had broken all by an actual transgression. So that, although all allowed sins deserve death, yet there is a difference still remaining in the several degrees of guilt and the curse. (2.) You cannot hence conclude that total rebellion is simply, and in itself, better than formal profession. Christ loved the man for the good things that were in him from his youth, and telleth him, `Thou art not far from the kingdom of God., We read of greater sins, and more intolerable judgment. Good moral heathens may have a cooler hell. (3.) You cannot apply it to them whose care of obedience is universal, though the success be not answerable: Ps. cxix. 6, `Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments;, not when I have observed, but when I have respect. Gracious hearts look to all, when they cannot accomplish all; and upon every known defect and failing they humble themselves, and seek mercy. It doth not exclude them, for then it would exclude all. But when men allow and please themselves in a partial obedience, without fore-care, present-striving, and after-grief, they come under the terror of this sentence. God will dispense with none that can dispense with themselves in any known failing. (4.) You must not urge this sentence to the exclusion of the comforts of the gospel, and the hopes that we have by the grace of God in Christ: for this sentence in itself is legal, the very rigour of the law, and such sayings brook the exceptions of repentance and free grace: for the rigour of the law can only take place on those that are under the bond of it, and are not freed by Christ. That this is the voice of the law is plain, because it consenteth with that sum and tenor of it which is laid down Deut. xxvii. 26, `Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the words of this law to do them., If they failed but in a circumstance, in a ceremony, they were under the power of the curse. So the apostle urgeth it. Gal. iii. 10, `As many as are under the works of the law, are under the curse; for cursed is he that continueth not in all things to do them., Now Christ hath redeemed all those that have interest in him from this curse, by being (as the apostle saith there, ver. 13) `made a curse for us;, so that there is a remedy in Christ, of which we are possessed by faith and repentance. And let it not seem strange to any that I say the sentence is legal, for many of that nature are here and there intermixed and scattered throughout the gospel, because they are of excellent use and service for gospel ends and purposes: as to convince hypocrites, whose obedience is always partial; to drive men to the grace revealed in the gospel; and for the guidance and rule of Christians, that they may know the whole will of God. For though we are freed from the rigour of the law, yet we ought to look to the whole rule, and, as much as in us lieth, to strive, μὴ πταίειν ἐν ἑνὶ, not to offend in one point and tittle, not to rest in their imperfections, but to strive against them. Christ hath again revived this strictness: Mat. v. 19, `Whosoever shall break one of these commandments, and teach men to do so, shall be least in the kingdom of God;, that is, shall not be owned for a gospel minister. Christ is chary of his least saints and least commandments. Though there be a pardon, of course, for infirmities and failings, yet Christ hath not abated any thing of the strictness of the law. The Pharisees thought that some commandments were little and arbitrary; and therefore the lawyer came to Christ: Mat. xxii. 36, `Master, which is the great commandment in the law?, It is true, some duties are more excellent; but the question was propounded according the mind of the Pharisees, who accounted outward devotionary acts most singular, and their own traditions weighty things; now he cometh to see if Christ liked the distribution. (5.) You must not urge this sentence to pervert the order of the commandments; as if a man, in committing theft, committed adultery; and in committing adultery, he committed murder. It is notable the apostle doth not say, `He transgresseth all, but `he is guilty of all., The precepts are not to be taken disjunctim, but conjunctim and completivè; not severally, but altogether, as they make one entire law and rule of righteousness, the contempt reflecting upon the whole law when it is wilfully violated in one part; as he that wrongeth one member, wrongeth the whole man or body of which it is a part. The text being vindicated, I shall sum up the whole verse into one observation, which is:—