Thomas Manton · 42 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter IV. · Part 1

VER. 1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even from your lusts, that war in your members?

He had in the former chapter spoken against strifes, as proceeding from envy, and pressed them to a holy wisdom; he doth here speak against strifes and contentions, as proceeding from other carnal lusts, as ambition, covetousness, &c., which make them vex one another, and break out into unseemly brawlings. He proceedeth by way of question and conviction, as appealing to their consciences.

From whence come wars and fightings among you?—These words, πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι, wars and fightings, are usually applied to their private contentions; either strifes and contentions about riches, greatness, and outward pomp, or else vexatious lawsuits, and that before unbelieving judges. And the reason alleged for this exposition is, because the Christians of those times durst not openly invade one another in a hostile way: they must of necessity then have disturbed the peace of the places where they were scattered. But how plausible soever this exposition may seem, to me it is frivolous; partly (1.) because it is harsh to render πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι, by private strifes and contentions; partly because these wars the apostle speaketh of did go so far as bloodshed; ver. 2, `Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, and yet ye have not., And (2.) in the epistle to the Hebrews, they went so far as slandering, the true Christians being spoiled and rifled by the counterfeit, Heb. x. 34. And (3.) Histories speak of wars and tumultuary agitations that then were between Jew and Jew; as Acts v. 37; see Josephus, lib. xviii. cap. 1, 4, 10, and lib. xx.; see Grot. in locum. And in these probably many of the pseudo-Christians were engaged. (4.) The apostle out of his special relation doth in this epistle not only write to the believers, but the whole nation of Israel, as doth appear by many passages of the epistle, and hath been once and again cleared.

Come they not hence, even from your lusts, ἀπο τῶν ἡδονῶν, `from your pleasures, as it is in the margin. Lust and pleasure are often put for each other, and sometimes they are coupled; as Titus iii. 3, `Serving divers lusts and pleasures:, both note the affection of a wicked man to sin. Lust noteth properly the earnest motion of the soul after sin; pleasure, the contentment it findeth in sin. Sin is a pleasure to wicked men; it taketh up their desires or delights: 2 Peter ii. 13, `Take pleasure to riot away the daytime , 2 Thes. ii. 12. `Had pleasure in unrighteousness, Pleasure is a sign of a perfect habit, and it is hardly left. Beware of a delight in sin, when acts of uncleanness, or thoughts of revenge are sweet to you, or when you please yourself in surmises of vanity, and proud reflections upon your honour and greatness in the world. Lord, if ever sin overcome, let it be my burden, and not my pleasure. It is a sad and high degree to `rejoice to do evil.,

Which war in your members.—There are several sorts of wars in the heart of man. In a wicked man's heart there may be combats—(1.) Between a man and his conscience. A heathen could say, στασιάζει αὐτῶν ψύχη, their soul is in a mutiny; and elsewhere, speaking of a wicked man, οὔδε πρὸς ἑαυτὸν φιλικῶς ἔχει, he is not friends with himself. A wicked man and his conscience are at odds and difference. (2.) Between conviction and corruption. Sin stormeth at the light that discovereth it, and `the law of the members, riseth up against `the law of the mind., (3.) Between corruption and corruption. Lusts are contrary one to another, and therefore jostle for the throne, and usually take it by turns. As our ancestors sent for the Saxons to drive out the Picts, so do carnal men drive out one lust by another, and, like the lunatic in the Gospel, Mat. xvii., `fall sometimes in the water and sometimes in the fire., As diseases are contrary, not only to health, but to themselves, so are sins, not only to grace, but to one another; and we ought not seek to cure a dead palsy by a burning fever. But now in a godly man the war is between sin and grace, fleshly counsel and enlightened reason. Now these `wars, are said to be `in their members., By members are understood both inward and outward faculties, which are employed as instruments of sin; and the inward faculties are called members elsewhere: Rom. vii. 23, `The law in the members., He meaneth the strong inclination and bent of the will and affections against the knowledge of the truth. So Rom. vi. 13, `Give not up your members to be weapons of unrighteousness;, that is, your faculties, which are exercised in and by the members of the body, and because of the analogy and proportion that they carry to the outward members, as the eye to the understanding, the will to the hand, &c.

Obs. 1. Lust is the makebait in a community. Covetousness, pride, and ambition make men injurious and insolent. (1.) Covetousness maketh us to contend with those that have anything that we covet, as Ahab with Naboth; hence those injuries and vexatious suits between neighbour and neighbour; hence public contentions. Men care not how they overturn all public welfare, so they may attain those things upon which their covetous and carnal desires have fastened. The Assyrian king did `destroy and cut off nations not a few, to add to the greatness of his empire, Isa. x. 7. (2.) Pride is the cockatrice egg that discloseth the fiery flying-serpent: Prov. xiii. 10, `By pride cometh contention., Pride endureth no equals. Hainan's thirst of blood came from his haughtiness; the apostles strove who should be greatest. (3.) Ambition. Diotrephes, loving the preeminence disturbed the churches of Asia, 3 John 10. (4.) Envy. Abraham and Lot's herdsmen fell out, Gen. xiii. 7. Two great ones cannot endure one another near them: Gal. v. 26, `Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.,

Obs. 2. When evils abound in a place, it is good to look after the rise and cause of them. Men engage in a heat, and do not know wherefore: usually lust is at the bottom; the sight of the cause will shame us. Is it not because I would be greater than others, more pompous and high than they? Grammarians talk of finding out the root, and philosophers of finding out the cause; so may Christians also. It is good to sift things to the bran and bottom. From whence doth this come? 1 Cor. iii. 3, `While there is among you envying, strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal?, It is good to check the fervour of an engagement by such a pause and consideration.

Obs. 3. Lust is a tyrant that warreth in the soul, and warreth against the soul. (1.) It warreth in the soul; it abuseth your affections, to carry on the rebellion against heaven: Gal. v. 17, `The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, &c. The Spirit no sooner presenteth a good motion, but the flesh riseth up in defiance against it; there is pride, and passion, and earthly-mindedness, envy, sensuality, unbelief, self-seeking, carnal policy; as soon as you purpose to repent, believe, pray, these are ready to hinder you, to distract you, that you cannot do the things that you would; nay, the flesh sometimes lusteth against the flesh: sin is a burdensome taskmaster, it commandeth contrary things. How often is a man divided between his pomp and his sparing, his luxury and his covetousness! (2.) It warreth against the soul: 1 Peter ii. 11, `Abstain from fleshy lusts, which war against the soul., You carry an enemy in your own bosoms, which defaceth the beauty, disturbeth the order, and enthralleth the liberty of the soul. Instead of God's image there is Satan's likeness; and instead of subjection to reason there is the rebellion of appetite and vile affections; instead of freedom for righteousness there is a sad bondage, which we may discover, but cannot help.

Before I go from this verse, I must handle two questions; one is concerning outward wars, and the other concerning inward.

Quest. 1. Concerning outward wars. The apostle's speech is inde finite, and at first seemeth to condemn all wars, as if they were of a base original and descent, of the lineage of lust; therefore I shall inquire whether any wars are lawful or no. Besides the insinuation of the text, a further cause of doubting is the unsuitableness of it to a Christian spirit, it being the most dreadful way of retaliating and revenging wrongs, which is contrary to Christianity, and a course not only questioned by some modern Anabaptists, but by antiquity itself. The eleventh canon of the Nicene Council enjoineth penance to them that take up arms after their conversion to Christianity; and to this very day it is decried by the whole Socinian school, as contrary^ to evangelical meekness and patience, and that course of defence which Christ hath instituted, to wit, martyrdom, or shedding of our own blood, not spilling that of others.

I answer briefly—(1.) There is nothing in scripture expressly against it, nothing but strained consequences, as that of Mat v. 43, 44, concerning love of enemies, which is forced; for nothing is there commanded but what is commanded in the Old Testament. Now there wars are approved, yea, appointed by God; and that saying of Christ concerneth private persons forbidding private revenge, passions, and animosities; and so likewise Mat. v. 39, where we are forbidden to resist, must be understood of the retaliations of private revenge; and so that of Rom. xii. 19-21, `Avenge not yourselves, &c. The magistrate's vengeance is God's vengeance; he is a person authorised by the Lord: therefore is it forbidden to a private man—he is not God's minister—to avenge them that do ill, &c. (2.) If there were some thing in the letter against it, it were to be modified by some commodious interpretation, rather than commonwealths should be deprived of such a necessary support. If the avoiding of a personal inconvenience, as one argueth well, hath by all men been accounted a sufficient reason to expound literal scriptures to a spiritual sense, as those of cutting off the right arm and the right eye, then questionless the letter of such scriptures must be made receptive of other signification; lest human societies should be destroyed, and disarmed of so necessary defence, and the world be turned into one universal rout and confusion; for religion is reasonable and innocent, and would establish no such inconveniences to mankind. (3.) There seemeth to be somewhat in the letter of the scripture for it. Wars in the Old Testament are approved and commanded by God. In the Apocalypse there is a manifest ap probation, if not excitation, of the people of God in their wars against antichrist. Besides, that they are not simply unlawful, it may be pleaded that John, being asked concerning the duty of soldiers, instructeth them, but doth not deny their calling, Luke iii. 14. And again, Peter baptizeth Cornelius without requiring him to give over his military employment, Acts x.; he continued in it when religious, ver. 2; he sent to Peter στρατιώτην εὐσεβῆ, `a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually., So Christ commendeth the centurion, without disallowing his office; so Paul used a band of soldiers against the treachery of the Jews; all which instances yield probable arguments. (4.) It may be proved lawful by such reasons and consequences as do well suit with the analogy of faith and the intent of the scripture. Christ came not to destroy communities. Now war is the solemn instrument of justice, the restraint of vice and public insolences, the support of a body politic against foreign invasions and domestic rebellions. It were against the interest of all government to deny them this power to resist and withstand the insolences of foreigners or the mutinies of subjects. They are higher powers, ordained for God to resist evil, Rom. xiii. 4; that is, for the punishment of vice, which cannot be done without war many times, as in the story of the book of Judges, chap, xx., and with us now: we are bidden to give all necessary supports to them that are in authority for the maintenance of justice, Mat. xxii., `Give to Caesar, &c., and Rom. xiii. 6, 7. (5.) There is so little in scripture about it, because nature of itself is prone to such cruel and violent remedies, it being revengeful and ambitious. You shall see in all such like cases, where man is very ready to practise, the scripture is very sparing in licensing or requiring. We all desire to sin cum privilegio, with a warrant from heaven; and to say as those in the prophet, `Thou hast deceived us, Jer. iv. 10; or this we do by divine warrant. Therefore the scripture in many matters useth great silence and reservation, lest, by frequent injunctions, it draw out our natural cruelty and revenge, which it seeketh everywhere to restrain. (6.) There are several other reasons why Christianity should be so sparing in directions and alterations concerning war. Partly to take off the scandal of being a makebait, the usual consequent of the gospel being a sword through the corruption of the world. Partly to keep people patient, and in a peaceable cohabitation, as long as equity and common safety may permit, and that there may be an exercise for faith, expecting the recompenses of God for all the wrong done to us; and of thankfulness, for giving for Christ's sake. Partly to restrain cruelty and delight in war. That is a character of profane men, how lawful soever the quarrel may be: Ps. lxviii. 30, and cxx. 7, `They are for war, &c. It is a barbarous and beastly disposition. Partly to show that peace must not be broken but upon urgent necessity. Every discontent with present affairs will not warrant so desperate a remedy; a thing so highly penal and afflictive should be the last refuge. Partly to prevent un lawful wars. But you will say, What wars are unlawful? I answer—To make a war lawful there must be a concurrence of several things: there must be offensio patientis, the merits of the cause—jurisdictio judicantis, the warrant of authority—intentio finis convenientis, the uprightness of intention—and aequitas prosequentis, the form of prosecution. (1.) When there is not a good cause, the assailed may cry, as David, `Lord, they hate me without a cause., Every slight pretence will not warrant it, nor every real cause, till other means are tried; for war, being the highest act of vindictive justice, must never be undertaken but upon weighty reasons. It is good to look to this circumstance; if the cause be good, and you are moved with other particular reasons, you sin. (2.) When there is no good authority to warrant it. The power of the civil sword is committed to magistracy, though for the people's good: it is not for every one that is discontented with the present government to take up arms at pleasure; that layeth a ground of all disorder and confusion. But now what authority is necessary may be gathered from the particular constitution of every kingdom: distinct societies have their distinct forms and administrations; in most, the supreme power doth not consist in one, but more persons. (3.) When there is not a right end in those that raise the wars, and in all that engage in it, which must be not only the glory of God in the general, but those particular civil and righteous ones which are proper to war, as the just defence of the community, or the punishment of such enormous offences as cannot otherwise be redressed. In short, the end of all war should be a righteous peace; not to en large territories, to revenge affronts, to weaken a growing power; not to feed a desire of gain, not to give vent to pride by a discovery of our force and puissance, not to royl the waters that we may fish the better, not to work public changes and innovations for the accomplishing of such things as our covetousness and ambition desireth; not for honour, pay, but in obedience to the higher powers, and a sense of the common good. (4.) When it is not managed in a righteous way, as with cruelty and oppression. Before engagement there should be treating, Deut. xx. 10, they were first to `proclaim peace;, so 2 Sam. xx. 18, `They shall ask at Abel, and so make an end., We should not run upon one another like beasts, not staying for any capitulations. In the battle you must shed as little blood as possibly may be; after the battle you should take nothing from the vanquished but the power of hurting. Briefly, nothing should be done but what suiteth with the just ends of the war, nothing that violateth the law of nature or nations.

Many things might be spoken to this purpose, but I would not dwell upon the discourse. One scruple I shall but touch upon, and that is, whether religion be to be defended with arms or no? I answer—Spiritual things are best defended with spiritual weapons. Christ's warfare is not carnal; but yet sometimes the outward exercises of religion and worship may be established and secured by laws; and among other privileges and rights, the liberty of pure worship may be one, which, if it be invaded by violence, may be defended with arms. So a magistrate may arm his subjects against an invading idolater. The estates of a kingdom may maintain their religion against the tyranny and malice of the prince, if, after faith given to maintain the laws and the religion established, he should go about to violate it: but if the prince be absolute, and not under former obligations, we have no other remedy left but prayers, and tears, and meek defences.

Out of all you may learn—(1.) Not to cry up a confederacy with every one that crieth up a confederacy. Wars may easily be unrighteous, and it is dangerous to come under the guilt of it. Here we walk upon the brink; it is the most solemn and severe act of vindicative justice, and therefore must not be undertaken slightly. (2.) If we may so many ways sin in war, what cause have we to be humbled, if any of us have been guilty of an undue concurrence to so great an evil, either by irregular engagement, or perverse intentions! The more universal the influence or sad consequences of a sin are, the more grievous should it be in the remembrance; besides the hurt done to our own souls, there is a wrong to others.

Quest. 2. The next question is, Whether lusts war in the heart of a godly man? The occasion of doubting is, because he writeth to Christians, and saith, `Lusts that war in your members., And Peter writing to the same saith, `Abstain from fleshly lusts, &c., 1 Peter ii. 11.

Ans. I answer—Yes. The life of a Christian is a wrestling, conflicting estate; there is a double nature in the best, `flesh and spirit, Gal. v. 17. We carry an enemy in our bosoms; the Canaanite is not wholly cast out. It was a good prayer of him that said, `Lord deliver me from one evil man, and it shall suffice, meaning himself. Flesh and spirit, like the twins in Rebecca's womb, they war and struggle; yea, lusts stir and rage more in a godly heart, to sense and feeling, than in a wicked. `When the strong man keepeth the house, the goods are in peace, Luke xi. 21. There is no stir; wind and tide goeth together. Conviction may sometimes awaken drowsy lusts, otherwise all is still and quiet; but usually there is more trouble with Bin after conversion, especially presently upon conversion. A bullock is most unruly at first yoking, Jer. xxxi. 18; and green wood, as soon as it beginneth to be fired, casteth much smoke. The devil rageth when he hath but a short time, Rev. xii. 12. And the like you must expect, though in a less degree, in all the duties of holiness. When Joshua came before the Lord, `Satan was at his right hand ready to resist him, Zech. iii. 1. Since the fall it is some evidence of grace to find this contrariety; since the admission of sin, grace is more discerned by the combat than by the absolute victory.

But you will say, How doth this war in a godly man differ from that in a wicked man? The ground of inquiry is, because condition and common illumination may make wicked men hate some sins: there is in them a war between the natural light of conscience and sensual courses, and their hearts will reproach them for gross sins or gross neglects.

I answer—(1.) There is a great deal of difference. Partly in regard of the grounds. A gracious man opposeth sin as it crosseth God's holiness, a wicked man as it crosseth God's justice; the one saith, God hateth this, the other saith, God will punish this; the one worketh out of a principle of love, the other of fear: the one hateth sin as defiling, the other as damning; the one as disabling him for good, Rom. vii. 18; Gal. v. 17, the other because of incommodity and sensible inconvenience; otherwise they can brook sin well enough; he doth not oppose sin as it interrupteth his communion with God. A wicked man careth not to be with God, so he might be securely without him. In short, in a godly man the two seeds and natures are opposite, but in the wicked there is only some foreign awe impressed upon the conscience, and his dislike is rather from a present anger than a settled hatred. (2.) Partly in regard of the manner. In the one, sin is opposed voluntarily, willingly, readily, because he hateth sin and loveth the commandment; in the other, God's restraint is more grievous than corruption: `The carnal mind is enmity to the law of God., Rom. viii. 7. They snarl at the restraint, they would be `willingly ignorant, 2 Peter iii. 5. A child of God doth the evil that he hateth, but resistance in wicked men is nothing but the rising of a carnal will against an enlightened understanding. (3.) Sometimes in regard of the help. In the one the Spirit warreth against the flesh; in the other, most commonly flesh against flesh; as our fathers drove out the Picts by the Saxons, so they extrude one lust by another. A godly man riseth against sin upon such considerations as the Spirit suggesteth: `How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God?, Gen. xxxix. 9; but a wicked man is mostly moved by carnal considerations. (4.) Partly in regard of the extent. A godly man's resistance is universal; he hateth sin as sin; and true hatred is πρὸς τὰ γένη, against the whole kind: Ps. cxix., `I hate every false way., A wicked man hateth some gross and staring sins; others, which are plausible and profitable, are reserved as a sweet morsel under their tongues. The hatred of a godly man is perpetual and irreconcilable; that of a wicked man may be pacified; he distasteth sin when conscience is roused. A man's heart riseth against a sword when it is drawn against him, but after it is laid down he will take it up; that resembleth a wicked man's resistance. A man's heart riseth against a toad, so that he will not touch it dead or alive; that resembleth the natural and constant enmity that is between a gracious heart and sin. (5.) In regard of the effects. A gracious soul is more humbled and cast down: Rom. vii., `O wretched man that I am, &c. It putteth him upon humble and pious addresses to God by prayer, and maketh him more jealous and watchful over his own heart; but a convinced man loseth ground conflicting with sin in his own strength; by his own thoughts he cometh at length to lose all awe and fear.

Ver. 2. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

In the context the apostle applieth himself to the cure of carnal desires; he hath mentioned one effect in the 1st verse, inward and outward trouble, both in the world and in our own members; he now cometh to another argument, the dissatisfaction and successlessness of those endeavours which come from lust, they distract the head with cares, and engage the heart in sins, and all to no purpose.

Ye lust, ἐπιθυμεῖτε, ye desire; but usually it is taken, in an ill sense, for inordinate and passionate desires; therefore it is well rendered ye lust.

And have not.—It may be taken two ways; either you never obtained, or have now lost: male parta male dilabuntur—ill means seldom arrive to possession, or, it, they do, possession is soon lost. Grotius supposeth the apostle intimateth the great want and dearth they sustained in the days of Claudius, Acts xi. 28; all their violent practices could not secure them against the inconveniences of those times. There is somewhat a like expression with this, Prov. xiii. 4, `The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing., But there the word speaketh of empty wishes and lasy velleities, here of passionate desires; there of the soul of the sluggard, here of the soul of the covetous.

Ye kill.—Calvin, Beza, Cajetan, Erasmus, and others, read φθονεῖτε, ye envy, though most Greek copies read as we do, φονεύετε, ye kill. The other reading was the rather embraced, because the charge seemed harsh, to say, `ye kill, when, in the received exposition, the wars here mentioned were only private contentions and lawsuits. But we cleared it before, that wars is here taken properly; and therefore are not urged with this inconvenience, and need not understand it, as Œcumenius doth, of spiritual killing, as if the sense were, ye kill your own souls; or of interpretative murder, mentioned 1 John iii. 15; but may expound it in the usual and received import of the word, covetousness going as high as murder; as 1 Kings xxi. 1, 2, and Prov. i. 19, `Every one that is greedy of gain taketh away the life of the owners thereof., In those public tumults, occasioned by their rapine and avarice, many were slain.

And desire to have, καὶ ζηλοῦτε, ye emulate, or are given to envy. The word is sometimes taken in a good sense: 1 Cor. xiv. 2, `Forasmuch as ye are emulous of spiritual gifts;, the word is ζηλοῦτε. There is a good emulation when we strive to imitate them that excel in virtue, or to go beyond them; but there is also a carnal emulation, which chiefly respecteth outward enjoyments, and noteth a grief that any should enjoy any outward excellency equal with us or beyond us, and a strong covetous or ambitious desire of appropriating that excellency to ourselves. In the first there is malice, in the second covetousness: we take it chiefly for the latter act of emulation, and therefore render it, `ye desire to have.,

And cannot obtain, οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν.—The word is emphatical, ye cannot arrive to happiness; that is, either to their happiness whom ye thus envy or emulate, or else to the happiness you fancy, carnal desires being either disappointed, or else increasing with enjoyment; it is a distemper that will not be satisfied. The language of lust is give, give; it is an appetite without bound or measure. If we had one world, yet we are not happy, we would covet another: carnal desire is a gulf that is never filled up. Enjoyments seem little, because there is still so much in hope; like children, that greedily desire a thing, and when they have it despise it; or like drunkards, who are always pouring in, yet do not quench, but inflame the appetite. See Eccles. iv. 8, and v. 10. Well may it be said, then, `ye cannot obtain., Carnal men possess much, but have nothing.

Ye fight and war, and yet ye have not; that is, though their violence and carnal desires had broken out so far as public insurrections and tumults, yet still they were at a loss.

Because ye ask not; that is, you do not use the lawful means of prayer. But how can it be said, `ye ask not, since in the next verse he saith, `Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss,? I answer—(1.) Possibly here he may task one abuse, there another; here that they hoped to help themselves by their own endeavours without prayer, there that their prayers were conceived to a carnal purpose. (2.) Because prayers not conceived in a humble and holy manner are no prayers; lust's prayers are no prayers, eructations of lusts, not spiritual supplications; a howling, Hosea vii. 14, which God regardeth not.

Obs. 1. Lustings are usually disappointed: `Ye lust, and have not., God loveth to cross desires when they are inordinate; his hand is straitened when our desires are enlarged. Sometimes out of mercy. It is a blessing to meet with disappointment in the ways of sin; you cannot have a worse judgment then to have your carnal desires filled up. O unhappy men, whom God leaveth to themselves without restraint! Prov. xiv. 14, `The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and a good man shall be satisfied from himself., The cursed apostate shall have enough of honours, and pleasures, and preferments. It was a mercy to the church to be disappointed: `She shall follow after her lovers, but shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, but not find them;, then `she shall think of her former husband, &c. Hosea ii. 7. Prosperous and successful wickedness encourageth a man to go on in that way; some rubs are an advantage. What we desire with greediness we enjoy with surfeit. To disappoint and check our lust, God in mercy fenceth up our way with thorns. Sometimes in judgment, that he may torment men by their own lusts; their desires prove their just torture. The blood heated by intemperance, and the heart enlarged by desire, are both of them sins that bring with them their own punishment, especially when they meet with disappointment. Amnon and Ahab were both sick, the one with lust, the other with covetousness.