Thomas Manton · 37 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter III. · Part 3

Obs. 7. The evils of the tongue are of a large and universal influence, diffuse themselves into all conditions and states of life. There is no faculty which the tongue doth not poison, from the understanding to the locomotive; it violently stirreth up the will and affections, maketh the hands and the feet `swift to shed blood., Rom. iii. 14, 15. There is no action which it doth not reach; not only those of ordinary , by lying, swearing, censuring, &c., but holy duties, as prayer, and those direct and higher addresses to God, by foolish babbling, and requests; we would have God revenge our private quarrel. Pulpits are made stages and cockpits, on which men play their prizes and masteries, and set on private passions. There is no age exempted; it is not only found in young men, that are of eager and fervorous spirits, but in those whom age and experience hath more matured and ripened. Other sins decay with age, this many times increaseth; and we grow more forward and pettish as natural strength decayeth, and `the days come on in which is no pleasure., I say, when other sins lose their vigour, as being tamed and subdued by the infirmities of old age, we see the spirit groweth more tart, nature being drawn down to the dregs, and the expressions more passionate. No calling is exempted. The tradesman in his shop abuseth his tongue for gain: Prov. xxi. 6, `The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a tossed to and fro of them that love death;, the woman at home, in idle tattling, and vain censures. Ministers in the pulpit often prostitute the sacredness of their function to the corruption of the tongue, by preaching for gain, by being `rash with their mouths to utter anything before God, Eccles. v. 1; by being furiously passionate, &c. There is no temper so and humble but may be perverted. Holy Moses, the meekest man upon earth, was angry at the waters of strife, and brake out into passion: Ps. cvi. 33, `He spake unadvisedly with his lips., Meek Christians in a disease, how fro ward are they! injurious even to God himself. David well prayeth in a great cross, `O Lord, keep the door of my lips, Ps. cxli. 3. Well, then, none of us should think these exhortations unnecessary. It is a vain scoff, and it argueth horrible slightness of spirit, to charge this only upon the female sex: through the strength and pregnancy of imagination or fancy, they may be given to talk; but you see men, the best and highest, are apt to offend. The apostle saith, `It setteth on fire the whole course of nature., No part of man so noxious and hurtful; no part of a man more fierce and unbridled; no part more easy and apt to err.

Obs. 8. A wicked tongue is of an infernal original. The prophets, fires, as I told you, were kindled from heaven; like the chaste fires of the Roman vestals, which, if let out, were to be rekindled by a sun beam. In all heats it is good to see they come; heat in good matters out of a selfish aim, is a coal fetched not from the altar, but the kitchen. Calumnies and reproaches are a fire blown up by the breath of hell. The devil hath been `a liar from the beginning, John viii. 44, and an accuser of the brethren, and he loveth to make others like himself. Learn, then, to abhor revilings, contentions, and reproaches, as you would hell flames; these are but the eruptions of an infernal fire; slanderers are the devil's slaves and instruments. Again, if blasted with contumely, learn to slight it; who would care for the suggestions of the father of lies? The murderer is a liar. In short, that which cometh from hell will go thither again: Mat. v. 22, `Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire., Wrath being expressed in a word of reproach, you see how deadly and grievous it is. By nourishing an evil tongue, you do nourish and keep in hell flame, which hereafter will break out to your destruction.

Ver. 7, 8. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of man kind: but the tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, and full of deadly poison.

Having showed the cursed influence of the tongue, he showeth how difficult the cure is. Wild beasts are more tractable, and may be sooner brought to hand, than an evil tongue; it is wilder than the wildest beast.

Every kind of beasts, and birds, and serpents, and things in the sea.—The enumeration is the more full, that he may show how far human art can reach. For instances and stories, interpreters abound in them. How lions have been tamed and brought to hunt as dogs, or draw the chariot as horses, you may see Pliny in his Natural History, lib. viii. cap. 16, and Ælian, lib. xv. cap. 14. How birds have been taught, you may see Plin. lib. x. cap 42, and Macrob. lib. ii. Saturn, cap. 10. Of elephants, Lipsius, cent, primà, Epist. 50. In short, nothing is so violent and noxious by nature but human art and industry hath made it serviceable to human uses. This is a fruit and relic of that dominion God gave man over the creatures at first; by an instinct put into their natures they were all to obey him and serve him; but man, revolting, lost imperium suum and imperium sui, the command of himself and the command of the creatures; he rebelling against God, the creatures rebelled against him, to avenge the quarrel of the creator. But now, by art and industry, and some relics of the image of God in himself, and the help and concurrence of a general , he doth in part recover his dominion over the creatures; but over himself he cannot by any means, no, not over his tongue, `a little member;, for to that end is this illustration brought here.

Is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind.—As if he had said, It not only hath been done in ancient times, but we see it still done. He useth this distinctness of expression to show that he doth not only intend the subjection of the creatures before the fall, which was full and voluntary, or some miraculous effects, as when the whale hurted not Jonah, chap. ii.; or the lions, Daniel in the den, chap. vi.; or the viper, Paul, Acts xxviii; but what is usual and ordinary, and falleth out often in common experience.

But the tongue can no man tame.—The old , wholly wresting this place, did read it as an interrogation, as if the sense were, Man can tame all other things, and can he not then tame himself? which is quite contrary to the apostle's scope, which is to show what an unruly and an untractable evil the tongue is. Others, to avoid the seeming harshness of the sentence, say, He speaketh of other men's tongues; who can stop them? as if it were a saying of a like sense with that Ps. cxx. 3, `What shall we give to thee? or what shall be done to thee, thou false tongue?, How shall I prevent it? But this also doth not agree with the apostle's scope, who doth not show how we should bridle other men's tongues, but guide our own. The meaning is, then, no man can do it of himself; and we have not such an absolute concurrence of the divine as to do it wholly.

It is an unruly evil, κακὸν ἀκατάσχετον.—Some take it causally; it is the cause of sedition and unruliness: but rather it signifieth what was formerly expressed, an evil that will not be held in. It is a metaphor taken from beasts that are kept within rails or chains. God hath, in the structure of the mouth, appointed a double rail to it, teeth and lips, and by grace laid many restraints upon it; and yet it breaketh out.

Full of deadly poison.—It is an allusion to such creatures as hurt by poison. The tongue is as deadly, and hath as much need to be tamed, as venomous beasts. Besides, some beasts carry their poison in their tongues, as the asp in a bladder under the tongue, which, when they bite, is broken, and then the poison cometh out; therefore it is said, Ps. cxl. 3, `They have sharpened their tongues as a serpent; adders, poison is under their lips.,

The notes are these: from the 7th verse you may observe:—

Obs. 1. The tractableness of the beasts to man, and the disobedience of man to God. Beasts are tamed, serpents are charmed by our skill, but we are not charmed by all the witchcrafts and allurements of Heaven: Ps. lviii. 4, 5, `Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely., It is an allusion to the fashion of the asp, which, when he seeth the charmer, layeth one ear close to the ground, and covereth the other with his tail. But now we read in the text, `Serpents have been tamed, and are tamed., But all the magic of the gospel, the sweet spells of grace, will not cure the heart of man. So the ox, a creature of great strength, is obedient to man, a weaker creature; but we kick with the heel against God, as the prophet, Isa. i. 3, `The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but my people doth not know, Israel doth not consider., Fallen man may go to school to the beasts to learn mildness and obedience; and yet God hath more power to subdue, and we have more reason to obey.

Obs. 2. The greatness of man's folly and impotency in governing his own soul. Though he tameth other things, he doth not tame himself. We seek to recover our loss of dominion over the creatures, but who seeketh to recover that power which he once had over his own soul? How can we lock to have our dominion entire over beasts and inferior creatures, when by the irregularity of our lusts we make ourselves as one of them? Ps. xlix. 12, `He is as the beasts that perish., We all affect , but not . Men seek to conquer others, but not themselves. Solomon saith, `He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that winneth a city;, that is the nobler conquest, but we effect it not. We would recover our lordship over the creatures, but still remain captives to our own lusts. Domat feram, non domat linguam; it was Austin's complaint, we do not tame the beasts in our own bosoms. The evil tongue is the worst serpent; and the most rabid and curst of all the fierce beasts is the railer; and therefore Solomon saith, Prov. xxi. 19, `It is better to dwell in a wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman., In the wild desert there are lions, and bears, and tigers, but these assault us but now and then, and these can but rend the skin; but a contentious woman is like a tiger, that still lieth in our bosoms, with sharp and bitter words, ever ready to fret out our hearts.

Obs. 3. The deepness of man's misery. Our own art and skill is able to tame the fiercest beasts, and make them serviceable; beasts as strong as lions and elephants; fishes that do, as it were, inhabit another world; birds as swift almost as a thought; serpents hurtful and noxious. But, alas! there is more rebellion in our affections; sin is stronger, all our art will not tame it. We may teach beasts to do things contrary to their fierceness and natural dispositions; ^elephants to crouch, horses to dance; but man is θήριον δυσμεταχείριστον as Plato called him, a beast that will not easily come to hand. We see in children much stubbornness, they come to be ripened and habituated in sin. A man would think their inclinations should be more flexible; but `folly is bound up in their hearts., Certainly man's will is the toughest sinew in the whole creation.

Obs. 4. Art and skill to subdue creatures is a relic and argument of our old superiority. The heathens discerned we had once a do minion, and the scriptures plainly assert it: Gen. i. 26, `Let them have dominion over the fowl of the air, over the fish of the sea, and over all the earth, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing., Next to God's glory, they were ordained for man's service and benefit. We had a right and a grant from God, and therefore all the beasts were to come to Adam and receive their names, which was a kind of formal submission to his government, and a presenting of their homage and fealty to him. For the maintaining of this government, God gave man wisdom, and planted an instinct in the creatures by which they should be ready to obey him, fearful of doing him harm and offence. And therefore, when the grant was in part renewed, it was said to Noah and his sons, Gen. ix. 2, `The fear and dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, fowls of the air, fishes of the sea, &c. So that then Adam could converse among the beasts without fear (as Noah and his sons did afterwards in the ark by singular dispensation), and command them at his beck and will; there would have been, on man's part, no such difficulty to subdue them to human uses—Adam, in the great wisdom with which he was then furnished, knowing how to accommodate himself to the dispositions of the beasts; and on the beasts, part, there would have been no repugnancy. But, alas! ever since the fall this right was forfeited, and the creatures withdrew themselves from man's obedience, and proved hurtful and rebellious; therein representing to us our own treason and disloyalty. And therefore usually wild beasts are made an instrument of divine vengeance: 2 Kings xvii. 25, `The Lord sent lions among them., So Ezek. xiv. 15, `I will cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and spoil it., The insurrection and rebellion of the creatures against us is a memorial of our unfaithfulness and rebellion against God. But yet, though this grant be forfeited, it is not wholly extinguished. A wicked man hath lost his right, but not the use, which to him is continued out of God's patience and general providence, for the preservation of human society. And the have a new title and right by Christ, which will at length fully instate them in the absoluteness of the old dominion; when the creature, being `freed from the bondage of corruption, shall willingly be subject to the children of God, Rom. viii. 19-22. But for the present the dominion is exercised in a much lower way than it was in innocency. Though we have some skill to subdue them, and govern them for human uses, either of profit or delight; and though there be some instinct of fear in the hurtful creatures, and therefore they do not come abroad at such times as man is supposed to be in the field, Ps. civ. 20-23, yet this subjection is not with such willingness as formerly on the creatures, part, Rom. viii. 20, nor with such easiness on ours, it being a matter of more difficulty and toil. Besides that, there are many creatures which, by their swiftness and fierceness, do wholly escape the terrors of man's sovereignty.

From the 8th verse observe:—

Obs. 1. The tongue is hardly tamed and subdued to any right use. I say hardly; for he doth not say none, but no man can—no human art and power can ever find a remedy and curb for it. And in this life God doth not give out absolute grace so as to avoid every idle word. The note is useful to refute the patrons of free-will; it cannot tame one member; and also perfectists. Do but consider the offences of the tongue, and you will see that you have cause to walk humbly with God. If he should but charge the sins of your own tongue upon you, what will become of you? But if it cannot be tamed, what shall we do? why do you bid us bridle it? I answer—(1.) If we have lost our power, God must not lose his right. Weakness doth not exempt from duty; we must bridle it, though we cannot of ourselves. (2.) Though we cannot bridle it, yet God can: Mat. xix. 26, it is a hard matter for `a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God; but with God all things are possible., Difficulty and impossibility as to the creature's endeavours are left, that we may fly to God. The horse doth not tame himself, nor the camel himself, nor man himself; man tameth the beast, and God tameth man; thou tamest a lion, and thou didst not make it: God made thee, and shall he not tame thee? Imago Dei domat feram, saith Augustine; domabit Deus imagmem suam. The work is done by the next highest power. (3.) To those that attempt it, and do what they are able, God will give grace; he never faileth a diligent, waiting soul. When God hath given you τὸ θελεῖν, `to will, he will give you τὸ ἐνεργεῖν, `to do;, the first motions are from him, and so is the accomplishment; offer yourselves to his work. (4.) Though we cannot be altogether without sin, yet we must not altogether leave off to resist sin. Sin reigneth where it is not resisted; it only remaineth in you where it is opposed. But you will say, What is our duty? I answer—(1.) Come before God humbly; bewail the depravation of your natures, manifested in this untamed member. This was one of the sins which Austin confessed, he said his tongue was fornax mali, an Ætna that was always vomiting up distempered fires and heats. Complain of it to God: `wretched man! who shall deliver me?, (2.) Come earnestly; this was one of the occasions upon which Austin in his Confessions sobbed out his Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis—Lord, give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt. He spake it upon the occasion of lust, and he spake it upon the occasion of the evils of the tongue. Your applications to grace must be the more earnest and frequent; cry for a remedy: `O Lord, keep the door of my lips, Ps. cxli. 3.

Obs. 2. From that an unruly evil. There is an unbridled license and violence in the tongue: Job xxxii. 19, `Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new bottles., When the mind is big with the conception, the tongue is earnest to utter it: Ps. xxxix. 3, `My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned., Therefore in the remedy we should use not only spiritual care, but an holy violence: `I will keep my mouth as with a bridle, `I will lay my hand upon my mouth, Ps. xxxix. 1. And you had need look to the heart; it cometh from `the abundance of , naughtiness must have some vent for its excrement and superfluity; and from the heat of wrath get a cool spirit; and from the itch of vainglory let man's honour seem a small thing, 1 Cor. iv. 3; and from the height of discontent, full vessels will plash over. Meeken the heart into a sweet submission, lest discontent seek the vent of murmuring.

Obs. 3. From that full of deadly poison. A wicked tongue is venomous and hurtful: as Bernard observeth, it killeth three at once—him that is slandered, his fame by ill report; him to whom it is told, his belief with a lie; and himself with the sin of detraction. Bless God when you escape those deadly bites, the fangs of detraction `A good name is a precious ointment, and a slanderous tongue is a `deadly poison;, nothing will secure you but the antidote of innocency; but if it be your lot, bear it with patience; there is a resurrection of names as well as persons. Though you are poisoned by the tongue of detraction, yet remember he is wont to give a cordial `in whose mouth there is no guile, 1 Peter ii. 22. It may also dissuade men from the sin; we would not poison one another; slander is poison.

Ver. 9. Therewith we bless God, even the leather; and therewith we curse men, that are made offer the similitude of God.

Here he showeth the good and bad use of the tongue; the good to bless God, the bad to curse men; and the absurdity of doing both with the same tongue: you put the same member to the best and worst use. Things employed in worship, because of their relation are wont to be accounted holy; certainly too worthy to be submitted or debauched to mean, at least, to the vilest, uses and purposes; that were a monstrous and unbeseeming levity.

I shall open the phrases in the points.

Obs. 1. The proper use of the tongue is to bless God: Ps. li. 15, `Open my mouth, and I will show forth thy praise., If God give speech and abilities of utterance, he must have the glory; it is the rent we owe to him. This is the advantage we have above the creatures, that we can be distinct and explicit in his praises: Ps. cxlv. 10, `All thy works, O Lord, shall praise thee, and thy shall bless thee., The creatures offer the matter, but the saints publish it. The whole creation is as a well-tuned instrument, but man maketh the music. Speech, being the most excellent faculty, should be to divine uses:Eph. v. 4, `Nor filthiness, nor foolish speaking, but giving of thanks, εὐχάριστια, thankfully remembering your sweet experiences. It is a Christian's work, and his recreation: `While I have breath I will praise the Lord, saith the psalmist. God gave us these pipes and organs for that purpose; your breath cannot be better spent. Acts ii. 4, when they spake with other tongues, they spake `the wonderful works of God., Well, then, go away and say, `I will bless the Lord continually; his praise shall be always in my mouth, Ps. xxxiv. 1. This is to begin heaven upon earth. Some birds sing in winter as well as in spring. Stir up one another, Eph. v. 18, as one bird setteth all the flock a-chirping.

Obs. 2. From that God, even the Father; that is, of Christ, and in him of us: you had the same speech, chap. i. 27. The note is, We bless God most cheerfully when we consider him as a father. Thoughts of God as a judge cannot be comfortable. Our meditations of him are sweet when we look upon him as a father in Christ. The new song and the new heart do best suit. Every one cannot learn the Lamb's new song, Rev. xiv. 3. Praise cometh from us most kindly when it cometh from us like water out of a fountain, not like water out of a still; out of a sense of love, not out of a fear of wrath. Wicked men can howl, though they cannot sing. Pharaoh in his misery could say, `The Lord is righteous.,

Obs. 3. From that and therewith me curse men. The same tongue should not bless God and curse men, it is hypocrisy. Acts of piety are counterfeited when acts of are neglected: Ps. l. 16, with 19, 20, `What hast thou to do to take my in thy mouth? seeing thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit: thou speakest against thy brother, and slanderest thine own mother's son., Hypocrites are most censorious, but true piety maketh men meek and humble. It is storied of Cranmer, that he never miscalled a servant, or used words of disgrace and contempt to them. Religion begetteth a grave awe and reverence. The seraphim never revile, but only praise God: Jude 9, `He durst not bring a railing accusation against the devil., Some are of a wicked temper, can only curse, like dogs, non proferitate, sed pro consuetudine latrant, that bark not so much out of fierceness as custom. They know not how to pray, their mouths are so inured to cursing and evil-speaking. Others there are that can curse and bless at the same time: `They bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly, Ps. lxii. 4; others that curse and rail under a pretence of piety and zeal. The evils of the tongue, where they are not restrained, cannot consist with true piety. Obedience is counterfeit where it is not uniform. One table cannot be kept with the violation of another. Oh! check yourselves, then, when you are about to break out into passion. Shall I pray and brawl with the same tongue? and divert from worship to railing? With this tongue I have been speaking to God, and shall it presently be set on fire of hell?

Obs. 4. Man is made after God's own image: `Let us make man after our image and likeness, Gen. i. 26. In other creatures there are vestigia; we may track God by his works, but man is his very image and likeness. I shall not be large in this argument. This image of God consisteth in three things—(1.) In his nature, which was intellectual. God gave him a rational soul, spiritual, simple, immortal, free in its choice; yea, in the body there were some rays and strictures of the divine glory and majesty. (2.) In those qualities of `knowledge, Col. iii. 10;, , Eccles. vii. 29: and `true holiness, Eph. iv. 24. (3.) In his state, in a happy confluence of all inward and outward blessings, as the enjoyment of God, power over the creatures, &c. But now this image is in a great part defaced and lost, and can only be restored in Christ. Well, then, this was the great privilege of our creation, to be made like God: the more we resemble him the more happy. Oh! remember the height of your original. We press men to walk worthy their extraction. Those potters that were of a servile spirit disgraced the kingly family and line of which they came, 1 Chron. iv. 22. Plutarch saith of Alexander, that he was wont to heighten his courage by remembering he came of the gods. Remember you were made after the image of God; do not deface it in yourselves, or render it liable to contempt, by giving others occasion to revile you.

Obs. 5. It is a dissuasive from slandering and evil-speaking of others, to consider they are made after God's image. I shall inquire—(1.) How this can be a motive. (2.) Wherein the force of it lieth.

1. How can this be a motive, since the image and likeness of God is defaced and lost by the fall? I answer—He speaketh of new creatures especially, in whom Adam's loss is repaired and made up again in Christ: Col. iii. 10, `Ye have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him., So Eph. iv. 24, `That ye put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness., God is tender of his new creatures; intemperance of tongue against saints is dangerous: as he said, `Take heed what you do; this man is a Roman, so take heed what you speak; these are Christians, created after God's image, choice pieces, whom God hath restored out of the common ruins. (2.) He may speak it concerning all men, for there are some few relics of God's image in all, as Epiphanius well argueth out of that Gen. ix. 6, `Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he him., In which reason there would be no force, if there were not after sin some relics of God left in man, though much deformed. So this saying in James, being promiscuously spoken of all kind of men, it argueth, that in them as yet remaineth some similitude of God, as the simplicity and immortality of the soul; some moral inclinations instead of true holiness; some common notices of the nature and will of God instead of saving knowledge; which, though they cannot make us happy, yet serve to leave us inexcusable. So also some pre-eminence above other creatures, as we have a mind to know God, capable of divine illumination and grace; and in the fabric of the body and countenance there is some majesty and excellency above the beasts, as also in the relics of dominion and authority spoken of before. And look, as we reverence the drizzled picture of a friend, and the ruins of a stately edifice, so some respect is due to these remains of our primitive integrity.

2. Wherein lieth the force of the argument—cursing man made after the image of God? I answer—(1.) God hath made man his deputy to receive love and common respects; higher respects of trust and worship are to be carried out to God alone; but in other things, Christians, the poorest of them, are Christ's receivers. Hence those expressions, `He that despiseth you, despiseth me, Luke x. 16; and `Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these little ones, ye did it not to me, Mat. xxv. (2.) The image of God is that which we can come at: we would blast all excellency: we go as far as our malice can reach. As they say, the panther, when she cannot come at the man, rendeth his picture; so do we deal with God. (3.) God himself is wronged by the injury done to his image; as among men the contempt and despite is done to the king himself which is done to his image or coin; as Mat. xxiii. 18, to `swear by the altar, which was the symbol of God's presence, was to swear by God. (4.) This is the fence God hath placed against injury: Gen. ix. 6, `For in the image of God made he him., It is referred, not to the slayer, as if he had sinned against those common notices of justice and right continued in his conscience, but of the man slain, he is the image of God: God hath honoured this lump of flesh by stamping his own image upon him; and who would offer violation to the image of the great King? Now to speak evil against him is to wrong the image of God. All God's works are to be looked upon and spoken of with reverence, much more his image.