Thomas Manton · 43 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter IV. · Part 2

Use 1. Learn, then, that when the heart is too much set upon any thing, it is the ready way to miss it. Rachel's desires of children made her the more barren. The fool talked of bigger barns, and that night his soul was taken away. When you forget to subject your desires to God's will, you shall understand the sovereignty of it. When the heart is strongly set upon a thing, there is no reservation of God's good pleasure. We say, I will; and God saith, I will not. We will have such a thing: `I will go after my lovers, as if we were petty gods. God will have his will against your wills: `I will fence thy way with thorns:, there is an implicit and interpretative contest between us and God. Again, when desires mistake in their object, they miss of their, end. God cannot endure that the same affection should be lavished on outward things which is only proper to himself and his grace: `violence, would become `the kingdom, Mat. xi. 12. When Amnon is as sick for Tamar as the spouse is for Christ, it begetteth a jealousy. Affections should rise according to the worth of the object: `Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but the meat which endureth for ever, John vi. Your industrious desires would become a better object; your strength should be laid out for everlasting bread; that is a labour without sin, and without disappointment.

Use 2. Be not always troubled when you cannot have your will; you have cause to bless God. It is a mercy when carnal desires are disappointed: say, as David, 1 Sam. xxv. 32, `Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that sent thee to meet me this day., Your hearts have been set on great estates, and you thought, with the fool in the Gospel, of enlarging your barns and exalting your nest, and of a sudden God came in and blasted all these carnal projects. Bless God for such providences: how secure, or sensual, or carnal would your spirit have been else! It was a mercy that `the world was crucified `to Paul, as well as Paul `crucified to the world, Gal. vi. 14. So when you have been crossed in the pursuit of some lust or uncleanness, you may afterward kneel down and adore the wisdom and seasonableness of such providences. Possidonius in the life of Austin hath a memorable history. He being to visit a place, with his guide mistook the way, fell into a bypath, and so escaped the hands of some bloody Donatists that lay in ambush to take away his life. God may lead you beside your intentions to avoid some dangerous sins that would else have destroyed your souls: Hosea ii. 6, `I will hedge up her way with thorns., Some cross providences may be a hedge to keep thee from further misery.

Use 3. It teacheth you what reflections to make upon yourselves in case of disappointment. When we miss any worldly thing that we have desired, say, Have not I lusted after this? Did not I covet it too earnestly? Absalom was the greater curse to David because he loved him too much. Inordinate longings make the affections miscarry. Observe it, those objects seldom prove happy that have too much of our hearts. We find it often that men of great care are successless; they turn and wind hither and thither, and are still like a door upon the hinges, in the same state and case: Ps. cxxvii. 2, `It is in vain to rise early, and go to bed late, and eat the bread of sorrows., A carking industry may be in vain and to no purpose; the success of human endeavours lieth in God's blessing and concurrence; it is the prerogative he hath reserved to himself; he keepeth it as a bridle over mankind, to keep them in obedience, duty, and dependence. Providence doth sometimes wean us from lust to grace, and showeth us that a blessing is sooner had by faith than worldly care: Ps. xxxix. 6, `Surely every man walketh in a vain show; heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them., Man goeth and cometh, and tosseth to and fro, and is gathering of riches, and increaseth the heap, and God of a sudden scattereth all. How often have you seen a covetous, carking man, like a mill-horse, still going round, and yet always in the same place?

Obs. 2. That where there is covetousness there is usually strife, envy, and emulation. Ἐπιθυμεῖτε, ye lust; φονεύετε, ye kill; ζηλοῦτε, ye emulate; these hang in a string. As there is a connection and a cognation between virtues and graces—they go hand in hand—so there is a link between sins, they seldom go alone. If a man be a drunkard he will be a wanton; if he be covetous he will be envious. Christ cast out seven devils out of one Mary Magdalene, and another man was possessed with a legion. When the heart is brought under the power of any sin, it lieth equally obnoxious to all sin. Covetousness may be known by its companions, strife, envy, and emulation: Rom. i. 29, `With covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy., Self-love is the root of all the three; it maketh us covet and desire what is good and excellent, and it maketh us envy that others should enjoy it; and then to break all bonds of duty and charity that we may wrest it from them. A covetous man is a full wicked man; he enlargeth his desires for himself, but is much straitened towards others; his eye is evil when God's hand is good. We often meet with strange compounds and prodigies of vice and sin: 2 Tim. iii. 2, `Covetous, proud, boasters, lovers of themselves, &c. It is said of Catiline that he was monstrum ex variis diversisque et inter se pugnantibus naturis conflatum, a compound and bundle of warring lusts and vices; so are many wicked men a composition of many sins, which seem to differ in their essence, but spring from the same root of corruption.

Obs. 3. From that ye lust, ye kill, ye fight and war.—It is lust and covetousness that is most apt to trouble neighbourhoods and vicinities. Solomon saith, Prov. xv. 27, `He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house;, we may add, yea, and all the houses near him; he is truly `the troubler of Israel., Man is by nature a sociable creature, fit for commerce. A covetous man is a wen of the body politic, not a member. A wen, by sucking the nourishment that is due to other parts, groweth monstrous and ugly in itself, and robbeth the body; so he being altogether for private gain, perverteth that which is the cement of all confederacies and societies—a care of the commonweal. Bodies are preserved when `the members care for one another:, 1 Cor. xii. 24. But this is not all. Covetousness is a base affection, that will put a man upon the basest and most unworthy practices; men given to it trouble their families by exacting all their labours, and trouble human societies by unjust contentions; they quarrel with those that possess that which they covet. Ahab spilt Naboth's blood for his vineyard's sake. They promote public changes and innovations, that they may feather their nests with the common spoils. Besides all this, they bring down God's judgments upon their people: Achan's covetousness troubled whole Israel, Josh. vii. Especially if high in place and honour; as when magistrates build their own houses upon others, ruins, and purchase large revenues and estates with the public purse, or detaining the hire of the poor. See Jer. xxii. 13. Well, then, no wonder that covetous men meet with public hatred and detestation; they are not only injurious to God, but human societies; they are a sort of men that are neither moved with arguments of nature or grace. It is a character of a bad spirit, Luke xviii. 2, that `he neither feared God nor regarded man., These two restraints God hath laid upon us—his own fear to preserve religion, and the shame of the world to preserve human societies. Now some men are moved with neither. It was a character of the Jews in their depravation, 1 Thes. ii. 15, `They please not God, and are contrary to all men;, they agree with none but themselves. So elsewhere it is said, 2 Thes. iii. 2, `Unreasonable men, that have not faith;, neither grace, nor good nature, nor faith, nor reason. So Lactantius saith of Lucian, Nec diis nec hominibus pepercit, he spared neither God nor man. Covetousness maketh men of such a harsh and sour disposition. Towards God it is idolatry; it robbeth him of one of the flowers of his crown, the trust of the creature; and it is the bane of human societies. Why are men's hearts besotted with that which is even the reproach and defamation of their natures?

Obs. 4. That lust will put men not only upon dishonest endeavours, but unlawful means, to accomplish their ends, killing, and warring, and fighting, &c. Bad means will suit well enough with base ends; they resolve to have it, rem, quocunque modo rem; any means will serve the turn, so they may satisfy their thirst of gain: 1 Tim. vi. 9, `They that will be rich fall into temptations and a snare;, Prov. xxviii. 20, `He that hasteth to be rich shall not be innocent., If God will not enrich them, Satan shall; and what they cannot get by honest labour they make up by the deceitful bag. Learn, then, what a tyrant lust is; if God doth not bless us, it maketh us go to the devil. And again, know that that is rank lust which putteth you upon dishonest means.

Obs. 5. From that ye lust, and have not; and again, ye kill and emulate, and have not; and again, ye fight and war, and have not.—That do wicked men what they can, when God setteth against them, their endeavours are frustrate. Let them try all ways, yet still they are disappointed: Ps. xxxiii. 10, `He maketh the devices of the wicked to be of none effect., God will not let his creatures to be too hard for him in all strifes; he will overcome, and have the best of it, Rom. iii. 4. But when doth God set himself to frustrate the endeavours of the creature? I answer—When the creature setteth itself to frustrate his counsels and intents. That may be done several ways:—(1.) When we will do things in despite of providence. They are disappointed once or twice in an evil way, yet they will try again, as if they would have the mastery of God; as the king of Israel would adventure the other fifty after two fifties were destroyed, 2 Kings i.; Pharaoh would harden his heart after many plagues; Balaam would smite his ass three times, Num. xxii. 25, and after that he would build altar upon altar to curse Israel. (2.) When men seek by carnal policies to make void God's promises or threatenings. God had said, `I will cut off Ahab's posterity, To avoid this he falleth a-begetting of children; he had seventy children, that were all brought up in seventy strong cities, yet all beheaded by Jehu. Herod, that he might make sure work of Christ, killed all the children of Bethlehem, and some say his own son, nursed there; whereupon Augustus said, Melius est Herodis porcus esse quam filius—it is better to be Herod's swine than his son: and yet Christ was kept safe: Prov. xxi. 30, `There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord., He useth many words to show that all the exquisiteness and choiceness of parts will not be able to manage the contest against providence. (3.) When men crossed by providence seek happiness elsewhere by unlawful acts and means, as violence, cozenage, extortion, deceit, as if Satan could make them more prosperous than God; see if these men do not go back in their estates; if their families, which they seek to raise by such means, be not ruined. The old world would build a tower, as if there were more security in a tower than a promise, Gen. xi. 4. Many devices there are in man's heart to compass their ends, but they are all blasted and marked with the curse of providence. (4.) When you say I will, without God's leave: see Exod. xv. 9; James iv. 3. Such confident purposes and presumptions as are not subjected to God's pleasure are seldom prosperous. (5.) By reiterated endeavours against the church: see Isa. viii. 9, 10. They are still `broken in pieces, though they join force to policy, combine themselves in leagues most holy, and renew their assaults with a united strength; therefore the prophet repeateth it so often, `Ye shall be broken in pieces, ye shall, &c.

Obs. 6. From that because ye ask not; that is, ask not God's leave in humble and holy prayer. The note is, that it is not good to engage in any undertaking without prayer. In prayer you ask God's leave, and show your action is not a contest with him. The families that call not upon God's name must needs be cursed: in their actions they do, as it were, say they will be happy without God. We learn hence—(1.) That that argument against prayer is vain: God knows our requests already; and God's decrees are immutable, and cannot be altered by our prayers. So argued of old Maximus Tyrius, a heathen philosopher, and so many Libertines in our days. I answer—Prayer is not for God's information, but the creature's submission; we pray that we may have his leave. And again, God's decrees do not exclude the duty of creatures and the work of second causes: Ezek. xxxvi. 37, `I will yet for this be inquired after by the house of Israel;, so Jer. xxix. 11, 12, `I know the thoughts of peace that I have towards you, yet ye shall call upon me, and I will hear you., (2.) That no actions must be taken in hand but such as we can commend to God in prayer; such recreations as we are ashamed to ask a blessing upon must not be used; such enterprises we must not engage in as we dare not communicate to God in our supplications: Isa. xxix. 15, `Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord;, that is, design their enterprises, and never inquire after the will of God, or communicate their purpose to him in prayer.

Ver. 3. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

In this verse he anticipateth and preventeth an objection. They might say, We do ask, and go to God (suppose) by daily prayers. The apostle answereth, You ask indeed; but because of your vicious intention you cannot complain of not being heard; would you make God a servant to your lusts? For to convince them, he showeth what was the aim of their prayers the conveniences of a fleshly life: `Ye ask, that ye may consume it upon your lusts or pleasures, ταῖς ἡδοναῖς.

There are several points notable in this verse; they may be reduced to these three:—

1. That we pray amiss when our ends and aims are not right in prayer.

2. That our ends and aims are wrong when we ask blessings for the use and encouragement of our lusts.

3. That prayers so framed are usually successless; we miss when we ask amiss.

Obs. 1. I begin with the first. That we pray amiss when our ends and aims are not right in prayer. The end is a main circumstance in every action, the purest offspring of the soul. Practices and affections may be overruled; this is the genuine, immediate birth and issue of the human spirit. We may instance in all sorts of actions; we know the quality of them, not by the matter, but the end. In indifferent things the property of the action is altered by a wrong end. To eat out of necessity is a duty we owe to nature; to eat out of wantonness is an effect of lust. So in all things instituted and commanded, the end determineth the action. Jehu's slaying of Ahab's children was not obedience, but murder, because done for his own ends. God required it, 2 Kings x. 30; and yet God saith, Hosea i. 4, `I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu., God required it as a righteous satisfaction to justice. Jehu spilt it out of ambition; therefore so many persons slain, so many murders. So in these actions of worship, they are good or bad as their end is. Speaking to God may be prayer, if it come from zeal; it may be howling, if it come from lust, Hosea vii. 14; then it is but a brutish cry, as beasts out of the rage of appetite howl for the prey, or things they stand in need of. For worship must never have an end beneath itself. We act preposterously, and not according to reason, when the means are more noble than the end. When we make self the end of prayer, it is not worship of God, but self-seeking. All our actions are to have a reference and ordination to God, much more the acts that are proper to the spiritual life; it is called a `living to God, Gal. ii. 19. That is the main difference between the carnal life and the spiritual; the one is a living to ourselves, the other is a living to God. Now especially acts of worship are to be unto God and for God, for there the soul setteth itself to glorify him; and the addresses being directly to him, must not be prostituted to a common use. Well, then, consider your ends in prayer, not the manner only, not the object only, but the end. It is not enough to look to the vehemency of the affections; many make that all their work, to raise themselves into some quickness and smartness of spirit, but do not consider their aim. It is true, it is good to come with full sails; `fervent prayer, is like an arrow drawn with full strength, but yet it must be godly prayer. A carnal spring may send forth high tides of affection; the motions of lust are usually very earnest and rapid. It is not enough to look to the fluency and serviceableness of invention; carnal affections and imagination joined together may engage the wit, and set it a-work; invention followeth affection. It is not enough to make God the object of the prayer, but the end also. Duty is expressed sometimes by `serving God, at other times by `seeking God;, serving noteth the object, seeking noteth the end; in serving we must seek, &c.

Obs. 2. The next point is, that our ends and aims are wrong in prayer when we ask blessings for the use and encouragement of our lusts. Men sin with reference to the aim of prayer several ways: (1.) When the end is grossly carnal and sinful. Some seek God for their sins, and would engage the divine blessing upon a revengeful and carnal enterprise; as the thief kindled his torch that he might steal by at the lamps of the altar. Solomon saith, Prov. xxi. 27, the wicked offereth sacrifice `with an evil mind., Foolish creatures vainly imagine to entice heaven to their lure. Balaam buildeth altars out of a hope that God would curse his own people; and wicked men hope by fasts and prayers to draw God into their quarrel; others seek a blessing upon their theft and unjust practices. The whore had her vows and peace-offerings for the prosperity of her unclean trade, Prov. vii. 14. This was a thing which heathens condemned. Juvenal laughed at it in one of his satires. Plato forbiddeth it in his Alcibiades. Pliny detesteth it as a stupid impudence, to profane the religion of the temples by making it conscious to unclean requests. These impious stories of prayers commended to the Virgin Mary for a blessing upon thefts and adulteries, which yet they say were granted because of the devoutness of the supplicants in the psalter and rosary, are worthy all Christians, abomination. (2.) When men privily seek to gratify their lusts, men look upon God tanquam aliquem magnum, as some great power that must serve their carnal turns; as he came to Christ, Luke xii. 13, `Master, speak to my brother to divide the inheritance., We would have somewhat from God to give to lust; health and long life, that we may live pleasantly; wealth, that we may `fare deliciously every day;, estates, that we raise up our name and family; victory and success, to excuse ourselves from glorifying God by suffering, or to wreak our malice upon the enemies; church deliverances, out of a spirit of wrath and revenge. As they were ready to `call for fire from heaven, not knowing of what spirit they were, Luke ix. 55. So some pray for the assistance and quickenings of the Spirit to set off their own praise and glory, and pervert the most holy things to common uses and secular advantages. Simon Magus would have gifts that he might be τις μέγας, a man of great repute in his place, Acts viii. 9. The divine grace, by a vile submission and diversion, is forced to serve our vainglory. (3.) When we pray for blessings with a selfish aim, and not with serious and actual designs of God's glory, as when a man prayeth for spiritual blessings with a mere respect to his own ease and comfort, as for pardon, heaven, grace, faith, repentance, only that he may escape wrath. This is but a carnal respect to our own good and welfare. God would have us mind our own comfort, but not only. God's glory is the pure spiritual aim. Then we seek these things with the same mind that God offereth them: Eph. i. 6, `He hath accepted us in the beloved, to the praise of his glorious grace., Your desires in asking are never regular but when they suit with God's ends in giving. God's glory is a better thing, and beyond our welfare and salvation. So in temporal cases. When men desire outward provisions merely that they may live the more comfortably, not serve God the more cheerfully. Agur measureth the conveniency and inconveniency of his outward estate, as it would more or less fit him for the service of God: Prov. xxx. 8, 9, `Not poverty, lest I deny thee; not riches, lest I forget thee., So in public cases of church deliverance, when we do not seek our own safety and welfare so much as God's glory: Ps. cxv. 1, `Not to us, not to us, &c.; that is, not for our merits, not for our revenge, our safety, but that mercy and truth may shine forth.

But you will say, May we not seek our own good and benefit?

I answer—Not ultimately, not absolutely, but only with submission to God's will, and subordination to God's glory. The main end why we desire to be saved, to be sanctified, to be delivered out of any danger, must be that God may be honoured in these experiences, in comparison of which our own glory and welfare should be nothing: `Not to us, not to us, &c.

But you will say, How shall we know that God's glory is the utmost aim? A deluded heart will pretend much.

I answer—You may discern it: (1.) By the work of your own thoughts. The end is first in intention and last in execution, therefore the heart worketh upon it. Now, what runneth often in the thoughts? When you pray against enemies, do you please yourself with suppositions and surmises of revenge, or hopes of the vindication of God's name? So in prayers for strength and quickening, do not you entertain your spirit with whispers of vanity, dreams of applause, and the echoes and returns of your own praise? or enchant your minds with the sweet music of public acclamations? By these inward and secret thoughts the soul falleth out after carnal success and advantage. (2.) By the manner of praying—absolutely for God's glory, but in all other things with a sweet submission to God's will: John xii. 27, 28, `Save me from this hour; for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy name., Christ is absolute in that request, and so receiveth an answer. It is enough to a gracious heart if God will glorify his own name. But now carnal aims make the spirit impetuous and impatient of check and denial. They are all for being saved from this hour. Rachel must have children or die. When the heart is set upon earthly success, or pleasure, or comfort, they cannot brook a denial. (3.) By the disposition of your hearts. When prayers are accomplished, when we do not ask for God's glory, we abuse mercies to revenge, luxury, excess. Lust is an earnest craver, but when it receiveth any comfort it consumeth it in ease and pleasure. We deceive ourselves with notions. The time of having mercies is the time of trial.

But how shall I do to get my ends right in prayer?

It is a necessary question; nothing maketh a man see the necessity of the divine help and concurrence to the word of prayer so much as this. To act for a holy end requireth the presence of the Spirit of grace; supernatural acts need supernatural strength. It is true in these inward productions `that which is of the flesh is flesh;, water cannot rise higher than its fountain; bare nature aimeth at its own welfare, ease, and preservation; therefore go to God; beg uprightness—it is his gift as well as other graces. The help that we have from the Spirit is to make requests κατὰ Θέον, `according to the will of God;, or, as it is in the original, `according to God., Rom. viii. 27; that is, to put up godly requests for God's sake. Besides, there should be much mortification; that which lieth uppermost will be soonest expressed: `Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh., God's people are ready in holy requests, because their hearts are exercised in them: Ps. xlv. 1, `My heart inditeth a good matter, &c. Worldly cares, worldly sorrows, worldly desires, must have vent. Vessels give a sound according to the metal they are made of. Hypocrites will howl for carnal comforts. Beat away these carnal reflections when they rush into your minds: Abraham drove the fowls away, Gen. xv. When you feel the heart running out by a perverse aim, disclaim it the more solemnly: `Not to us, not to us, &c.

Obs. 3. That prayers framed out of a carnal intention are usually successless. Prayers that want a good aim do also want a good issue. God's glory is the end of prayer and the beginning of hope, otherwise we can look for nothing. God never undertook to satisfy fleshly desires. He will own no other voice in prayer but that of his own Spirit: Rom. viii. 27, `He that searcheth the heart knoweth the mind of the Spirit., What is a fleshly groan? and what is a spiritual groan^? A carnal aim expressed is but a supplication with a confutation; it is the next way to be denied. Spiritual sighs and breathings are sooner heard than carnal roarings: they that cannot ask a mercy well, seldom use it well: in the enjoyment there is more temptation. Usually our hearts are more devout when we want a blessing than when we enjoy it; and therefore when our prayers are not directed to the glory of God, there is little hope that when we receive the talent we shall employ it to the Master's use. Besides all this, prayers made with a base aim put a great affront and dishonour upon God; you would make him a servant to his enemy: Isa. xliii. 24, `Ye made me to serve with your iniquities., We would commit sin, and we would have God to bless us in it. It is much you should be servants of sin, but that you should make God administrum peccati, a fellow-servant, and yoke him with yourselves in the same servility, it is not to be endured. Well, then, it teacheth us what to do when our prayers are not granted; let us not charge God foolishly, but examine ourselves: Were not our requests carnal? suppose you prayed for quickening, and God left you to your own deadness, did not your heart fancy your own praise? If for safety, you would live in ease, in pleasure; if for an estate, you were pleasing yourself in the suppositions of greatness and esteem in the world. O brethren! as we mind success, let us not come to God with an evil mind; holy desires have a sure answer, Ps. cxlv. 19, and x. 17.

Ver. 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friend ship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is an enemy of God.

Because they were so overcome with worldly lusts that their very prayers and devotionary acts looked that way, he cometh to show the danger and heinousness of these lusts. The arguments of this verse are two—(1.) They will make you commit adultery; (2.) They will make you enemies to God.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses.—This must be understood spirit ually, as appeareth by the following words and the drift of the context, which is to inveigh against those lusts and pleasures which inveigle the soul and withdraw it from God. Now these are spiritual adulterers whom the love of the world alienateth and estrangeth from the Lord. The metaphor is elsewhere used, Mat. xii. 39, and xvi. 4, `This evil and adulterous generation.,