Thomas Manton · 57 of 60

A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James. · Chapter V. · Part 7

Obs. 2. From that let him call for the elders. Note, that the chief care of a sick man should be for his soul. If any be sick, the apostle doth not say, let him send for the physician, but the elders. Physicians are to be called in their place, but not first, not chiefly. It was Asa's fault, 2 Chron. xvi. 12, `In his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians., Sickness is God's messenger to call us to meet with God. Do not as the most do, send for the bodily physician, and, when they are past all hope and cure, for the divine. Alas! how many do so, and ere a word of comfort can be administered to them, are sent to their own place.

Obs. 3. From that let him call. The elders must be sent for. A man that hath continued in opposition is loath to submit at the last hour, and to call the elders to his spiritual assistance. I remember, Aquinas saith, Sacramentum extremae unctionis non nisi petentibus verbo vel signo dari debet, that this last office must not be performed but to those that require it. Possidonius, in the life of Austin, saith, that Austin was wont of his own accord to visit the poor, the father less, and the widow, but the sick never till he was called. It is indeed suitable to true religion to `visit the fatherless, James i. 27; but the sick must call for the elders. Truly sometimes I have been afraid to prostitute the comforts of Christianity to persons sottishly neglecting their own souls. I confess sometimes, where we know our company will not be unwelcome, and in some other cases, we may go uncalled, that we may learn of our master, and be `found of them that asked not for us, Isa. lxv. 1.

Obs. 4. From that the elders. For our comfort in sickness it is good to call in the help of the guides and officers of the church. They, excelling in gifts, are best able to instruct and pray. They can with authority, and in a way of office, comfort and instruct; the prayers of prophets have a special efficacy. So God saith to Abimelech of Abraham, Gen. xx. 7, `Go to him, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee., This was the special work of the prophets, to pray for the people, and they had more solemn promises of success: Jer. xxvii. 18, `If they be prophets, and the word of the Lord be in them, let them entreat the Lord., They that speak God's word to you are fittest to commend your case to God. Well, then, do not despise this help. Acts done by virtue of an office are under a more solemn assurance of a blessing: `Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted, &c., It is not spoken to every believer. They can authoritatively minister comfort. It is not false divinity to say, God will hear their prayers, when he will not hear the prayers of others: Job xlii. 8, `Job shall pray for you, and him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly., Though they were good men, yet God would hear Job; therefore in Ezekiel Job is proverbially used for a praying prophet. Use their help then; it is help in the way of an ordinance, and then you may the better expect a blessing. When Hezekiah was sick, Isaiah, the prophet, cometh to give him faithful counsel, 2 Kings xx. 1, 2.

Obs. 5. Again from that the elders. Visiting of the sick should be performed with the joint care of church officers; it is a weighty work y and needeth many shoulders; the diversity of gifts for prayer and discourse seemeth to call for it; it is the last office we can perform to those of whom the Lord hath made us overseers.

Obs. 6. From that let them pray. One necessary work in visiting is commending sick persons to God, and this prayer must be made by them, or over them, that their sight may the more work upon us, and our prayers may work upon them.

Obs. 7. From that and anoint him with oil. From this clause observe the condescension of God. The first preachers of the gospel of Christ had power to do miracles: the doctrine itself, being so rational and satisfactory, deserved belief; but God would give a visible confirmation, the better to encourage our faith; when Christ had ended his sermon upon the mount, then he wrought miracles; before, there was a great rest and silence of prodigy and wonder: John iii. 2, `We know that thou art a teacher sent from God, for no man can do such things as thou dost, unless God were with him., This was the satisfaction God would give the world concerning the person of the Messiah. Now those miracles are ceased, Christ having gotten a just title to human belief, and that we might not be left to uncertainty. The devil can do strange things, though not such as are truly miraculous; and, therefore, lest we should be deceived, Christ hath foretold that we can expect nothing but `the lying wonders, of Antichrist, 2 Thes. ii. 7, and that `false Christs shall show great signs, Mat. xxiv. 24.

Obs. 8. From that anoint with oil in order to cure, note, that the miracles done in Christ's name were wrought by power, but ended in mercy. In the very confirmation of the gospel God would show the benefit of it. The miracles tended to deliver men from miseries of soul and body, from blindness, and sickness, and devils, and so best suited with that gospel which giveth us promises of this life and that which is to come. These miracles were a meet pursuance of his doctrine; not only confirmations of faith, but instances of mercy and charity; not miracles of pomp, merely to evince the glory of his person, but miracles of mercy and actions of relief, to show the sweetness of his doctrine; as also to teach us that in the gospel God would chiefly manifest his power in showing mercy.

Obs. 9. From that in the name of the Lord. All the miracles that were wrought were to be wrought in Christ's name. The apostles and primitive Christians, though they had such an excellent trust, did not abuse it to serve their own name and interests, but Christ's; teaching us that we should exercise all our gifts and abilities by Christ's power to Christ's glory: Ps. li. 16, `Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise;, that was a right aim. To desire quickening for our own glory, is but like him that lighted his candle at one of the lamps of the altar to steal by, or to beg the aid and contributions of heaven for the service of hell. The name and form was made use of by the sons of Sceva, but to their own ends, and therefore to their own ruin, Acts xix. 13. To do things in his name, that is, by abilities received from him, with a pretence to his glory, when we design our own, will succeed but ill with us, as that attempt did to them. Christ will be honoured with his own gifts, and, in dispensing every ability, expecteth the return of praise.

Ver. 15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Here he cometh to show the effect of this anointing and praying, though it is notable he ascribeth it rather to the prayer than to the oil, the moral means being much more worthy than the ritual and ceremonial; and, therefore, he doth not mention the anointing, but the prayer of faith; as also to show that this is the standing spiritual means of cure, the other being but an arbitrary rite suited to those times.

The prayer of faith; that is, made out of, or in faith. This is added to show that this remedy should only be effectual when they had a special revelation or persuasion of the success of it, there being required to the miracle faith both in the elders and person sick; faith in him that did the miracle, and faith in him upon whom it was wrought; otherwise the one was not to attempt it, or to the other, if administered, it would not prove successful We see unbelief did ponere obicem, let and hinder our Saviour's operation: Mark vi. 5, `He could do no mighty work, &c.

Shall save the sick, σώσει, save.—He speaketh of a corporal infirmity, and therefore it is meant of a corporal salvation, that is, shall restore to health: so saving is used for healing, Mat. ix. 21; Mark vi. 56, `were saved, or `made whole.,

And the Lord shall raise him up, ἐγερεῖ.—It is used for a resurrection out of death, and a restoration to health out of sickness, not only here but elsewhere: Mark i. 31, `He came and took her by the hand, καὶ ἠγειρεν αὐτὴν, `lift her up, or `raised her up., So Mat. viii. 15, ἠγέρθη καὶ διηκόνει, `She was raised, and ministered to them., The reason of the word is, because sick persons lie upon their beds, and when they are recovered we say, he is up again, upon his legs again. `The Lord shall raise him up;, this is added to show by whose power it is done: faith's worth and efficacy lieth in its object, so that it is not faith properly, but God called upon in faith, that saveth the sick.

And if he have committed sins.—Why doth the apostle speak hypothetically? Who is there that can say `my heart is clean,? Prov. xx. 9. I suppose the apostle would imply those special sins by which the disease was contracted and sent of God. Now herein he might speak by way of supposition, sicknesses being not always the fruit of sins, but sometimes laid on, as a means to discover God's glory, John ix. 2.

They shall be forgiven him.—But how can another man's prayer of faith obtain the remission of my sins? I answer—Very well in God's way, and as they procure means of conversion and repentance for me; not as if because they pray and believe, though I do what I will, I shall be forgiven; but they pray, and therefore God will give me a humble heart, and, in the way of the gospel, the comfort of a pardon; for certainly we are to ask spiritual matters for others, as well as temporal; and, if we ask, there must be some hope at least that God will grant. Out of this verse observe:—

Obs. 1. That means, whether moral or ritual, are no further effectual than they are accompanied with faith; anointing will not do it, prayer will not do it; but `the prayer of faith shall save the sick., In the primitive times, when miracles were in their full force and vigour, the effect is always ascribed to faith: Mat. ix. 22; `Thy faith hath made thee whole., Christ doth not say, thy touching my garment, but thy faith. You shall see it is said, Mark vi. 56, `As many as touched his garment were made whole;, and, therefore, the woman thought that the emanation was natural, and not of free dispensation. To instruct her, Christ showeth it was not the rite, but her faith; so Acts iii. 16, `His name, by faith in his name, hath made this man strong., Mark, that place showeth, that as means cannot work without faith, so neither will the principal cause,—`his name, through faith in his name., The disciples, though invested with high gifts, could not cure the lunatic for want of faith: Mat. xvii. 17, `I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him; and Jesus said, O faithless generation!, Well, then, learn that in all duties and means we should mind the exercise of faith, and we should strive to make the persuasion as express and particular as the promises will give leave: acts of trust are engaging, and the way to get God's power exercised is to glorify it in our own dependence.

Obs. 2. That all our prayers must be made in faith; our apostle beateth much upon that argument: James i. 6, `Let him ask in faith, &c. Faith is the fountain of prayer, and prayer should be nothing else but faith exercised; none can come to Christ rightly but such as are persuaded to be the better for him; all worship is founded in good thoughts of God. We have no reason to doubt; we always find a better welcome with him than we can expect; therefore, in all your addresses to God, pray in faith; that is, either magnifying his power by counter balancing the difficulty, or magnifying his love, by referring the success to his pleasure.

Obs. 3. Prayers made in faith are usually heard and answered; Christ is so delighted with it that he can deny it nothing: Mat. xv. 28, `O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee as thou wilt., Christ speaketh there as if a believer did obtain as much as he can wish for.

Obs. 4. The efficacy of faith in the use of means is not from its own merits, but from God's power and grace. The apostle saith, `Faith saveth;, but addeth, `The Lord shall raise him up., Faith is but the instrument; it is a grace that hath no merit in itself; it is the empty hand of the soul, and deputed to such high services because it looketh for all from God. The Papists look upon it as an act in us; and because reason will suggest that it is not of worth enough and sufficient for such high effects, they piece it up with works, which, they say, give it a value and a merit.

Obs. 5. That sins are often the cause of sicknesses; we may thank ourselves for our diseases. The rabbins say, that when Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, his head ached. Certainly there was the rise and root of man's misery: 1 Cor. xi. 30, `For this cause many are sick and weak, &c. The body is often the instrument of sins, and therefore the object of diseases; the plague and sore of the heart causeth that of the body. It is very notable that Christ in all his cures pointeth at the root of the disease: Mat. ix. 2, `Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee., It would have been an ineffectual cure without a pardon; while sin remaineth, you carry the matter of the disease about you. So John v. 14, `Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee., Obedience is the best physic; while sin remaineth, the distemper may be stopped, but not cured; it will break out in a worse sore and scab. The prophet Isaiah saith of Christ, Isa. liii. 4, `He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;, the meaning is, the punishment of our sins: so St Peter applieth it, 1 Peter ii. 24: `He bare our sins in his own body on the tree, which is the express reading of the Septuagint; but now Matthew applieth it to Christ's cure of sicknesses, Mat. viii. 17, `That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, He took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses., How shall we reconcile those places? I answer thus—In taking away sickness, which is the effect, Christ would represent taking away sin, which is the cause; Christ's act in taking away sickness was a type of taking away sin. Now Matthew applieth that^ to the sign, which did more properly agree to the truth itself or thing signified; for you may observe, for the clearing of this and other scriptures, that as the patriarchs, in their actions and in what they did, were types of Christ; so Christ's own actions were in a manner types of what he himself would do more principally. As casting out of devils signified the spiritual dispossessing of Satan, and therefore there happened so many possessions in Christ's time; so the curing of blindness, the giving of spiritual sight, and taking away of sicknesses, the pardoning of sins. Well, then, if sin be the cause of sickness, if we would preserve or recover health, let us avoid sin: Exod. xv. 26, `If thou wilt hearken unto me, I will bring none of these diseases upon thee, &c.; otherwise you may, as that woman, spend your whole estate upon the physicians, and yet the cause continue. You shall see, Deut. xxviii. 21, 22, sin is threatened with the consumption, fever, and inflammation; usually the disease answereth the sin, the distempered heats of lust are punished by an inflammation: Asa put the prophet in the stocks, and he himself was diseased in his feet, 2 Chron. xvi. 9, with ver. 12. There were times when God did more visibly plague disobedience, as in the times of the law; when dispensations were more corporal, diseases were a part of God's coercive discipline. However now and then God useth the like dispensations; sinners are met with according to the kind of their offence, though many I confess are left to be taken out by their own rust, and, like chimneys, are let alone so long foul till at length they be fired. But how many adulterers have we seen going up and down like walking spittles? How many beastly epicures, whose skins have been set afire by their own riot and surguedry, &c.?

Obss. 6. That is the best cure which is founded in a pardon. The apostle saith, `shall save the sick, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him., O my brethren! it were ill if any of us should be cured without a pardon, if the stripe and wound should remain upon the conscience when the body is made sound and whole; therefore first sue out your pardon; that is proper physic which worketh upon the cause. David saith, Ps. ciii. 4, `Bless the Lord, who forgiveth all thine iniquities; and healeth all thy diseases., There is the right method; a sick man's work first lieth with God, and then with the physician. Asa went first to the physician, and therefore it sped but ill with him. When God taketh away the disease, and doth not take away the guilt, it is not a deliverance, but a reprieval from present execution.

Ver. 16. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

For the connection, many copies have οὖν `confess your faults therefore, as inferring this direction from what was said before. However it be, there is a connection between the verses, for therefore would he have the special fault acknowledged, that they might the more effectually pray one for another. From whence note:—

Obs. That there is a connection between pardon and confession. The apostle saith `his sins shall be forgiven him;, and then `confess therefore your faults., See the like in other places: Prov. xxviii. 13, `He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall find mercy;, so 1 John i. 9, `If we confess, &c. This is the ready way to pardon, it is the best way to clear the process of heaven; that which is condemned in one court, is pardoned in others. God hath made a law against sin, and the law must have satisfaction; sin must be judged in the court of heaven or in the court of conscience, by God or us. In confession the divine judgment is anticipated, 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32; it is the best way to honour mercy. When sins abound in our feeling, mercy is the more glorious. God will have pardon fetched out in such a way in which there is no merit; by confession justice may be glorified, but not satisfied. We cannot make God satisfaction, and therefore he requireth acknowledgment: `He keepeth not his anger for ever; only acknowledge thine iniquity, Jer. iii. 13. It is the most rational way to settle our comfort; griefs expressed are best eased and mitigated; all passions are allayed by vent and utterance. David roared when he kept silence, but `I said, I will confess, and thou forgavest, Ps. xxxii. 5. Besides, it is the best way to bring the soul into a dislike of sin. Confession is an act of mortification, it is as it were the vomit of the soul; it breedeth a dislike of the sweetest morsels when they are cast up in loathsome ejections; sin is sweet in commission, but bitter in the remembrance. God's children find that their hatred is never more keen and exasperated against sin than in confessing. Well, then, come and open your case to God without guile of spirit, and then you may sue out your pardon. David maketh it an argument of his confidence: `Blot out my offences, for I acknowledge my transgression, Ps. li. 3. Confession doth not offer a bill of indictment to God's justice, but a sad complaint to God's pity and compassion. Oh! set upon this duty; it is irksome to the flesh, but salutary and healthy to the spirit. Guilt is shy of God's presence; the Lord is dreadful to wounded consciences. Ay! but consider this is the only way to sue out your pardon. Gracious souls would not have pardon but in God's way: Domine, da prius poenitentiam, et postea indulgentiam—Lord, give me repentance, and then give me pardon, saith Fulgentius. But you will say, We confess and find no comfort. I answer—It is because you are not so ingenuous with God as you should be; you do not come with a necessary clearness and openness of mind. David saith none have the comfort of a pardon but those `in whose spirit there is no guile, Ps. xxxii. 2. Usually there is some sin at the bottom, which the soul is loath to cast up, and then God layeth on trouble; as David lay roaring as long as he kept Satan's counsel. Moses had a privy sore which he would not disclose. He pleadeth other things, insufficiency, want of elocution; but carnal fear was the main: therefore God gently toucheth this privy sore: Exod. iv. 19, `Arise, Moses, for the men that sought thy life in Egypt be dead., He had never pleaded this, but God knew what was the inward let. So it is with Christians, some distemper is cockered in the soul; this guile is shaken off with difficulty, but always kept with damage. So you shall see in the history of Job; Job had complained that he did not know the reason of his hard usage; one of his friends answereth him, Job. xxiii. 9, to the end, that God speaketh `several times, and men note it not;, therefore God layeth on trouble upon trouble, and temptation upon temptation, and all for want of ingenuous and open dealing with him, till at length we confess; and then that rare messenger, `one of a thousand, cometh to seal up our comforts to us: for God will not open his heart to us till we open our hearts to him: `But if any say, I have sinned, and it profited me not, then his life shall see light., Usually thus it is, there is some sin at the bottom, and therefore God continueth trouble; therefore it is best to take David's course, Ps. cxix. 26, `I declared my ways, and thou heardest me., He opened his whole estate to God, and then God gave him the light and comfort of grace.

Confess your faults one to another, ἐξομολογεῖσθε ἀλλήλοις.—This clause hath been diversely applied. The Papists make it the ground of auricular confession, but absurdly; for then the priest must as well confess to the penitent person, as the penitent person to the priest. For James speaketh of such a confession as is reciprocal, as the words imply; therefore some of the more ingenuous Papists have disclaimed this text. Others apply it to injuries; as the sick person must reconcile himself to God that he may recover, so to his neighbour whom he hath wronged or offended. But παραπτώματα, faults, are of a larger signification than to be restrained to injuries. Some understand it of those sins in which we have offended by joint consent, as if a woman hath humbled herself to the lusts of another, she must confess her sin to him, and consequently and reciprocally he must acknowledge his sin to her, that they may by mutual consent quicken themselves to repentance. But this interpretation and application of the words is too restrained and narrow. I suppose the apostle speaketh of such sins as `did most wound the conscience in sickness as the special cause of it; and therefore joineth this advice of confession with healing and prayer, this being a means most conducible to quicken others to actions of spiritual relief, as the application of apt counsels, and the putting up of fit prayers. Things spoken at random have not usually such an efficacy and comfort in them. The note is:—

Obs. That there is a season of confessing our sins, not only to God, but to man. I will not digress into controversy; I shall briefly show—(1.) The evils and inconveniences of that confession which the Papists require; (2.) The seasons wherein we must confess to man.

First, For auricular confession, or that confession which the Papists require, I shall describe it to you. The Papists call it the sacrament of penance, by which a man is bound, at least once a year, to confess to a priest all the sins he hath committed since he was last shriven, with all the circumstances of it, quis, quid, ubi, quibus, auxiliis, &., and from this law none are exempted, neither prince nor king, no, not the Pope himself; in it they place a great deal of merit and opinion. The truth is, this is the great artifice and engine by which they keep the people in devotion to their interests, knowledge of secrets rendering them the more feared. Now that which we disprove in it is—(1.) The absolute necessity of it; confession to men being a thing only necessary in some cases; in others confession to God may be enough. Necessity, indeed, is laid upon that, 1 John i. 9. (2.) The requiring of such a precise and accurate enumeration of their sins, with all their circumstances, under the pain of an anathema, which, being impossible, maketh it one of those φόρτια δυσβάστακτα, those insupportable burdens which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. In short, this scrupulous enumeration is nothing else but a rack to the conscience, invented and exercised without any reason, no man's memory being so happy as to answer the requiry, Ps. xix. 12. (3.) Their making of it a part of a sacrament of divine institution. The jure-divinity of it they plead from this place, but wretchedly. One of the most modest of their own writers, Gregory de Valentia, reckoneth up many Papists that say the ground of it only was universal tradition, although indeed it was instituted twelve hundred years after Christ, among other superstitions, by Innocent the Third. (4.) The manner as it is used, and the consequences of it, make it justly odious. It is tyrannical, dangerous to the security and peace of princes, betraying their counsels, infamous and hazardous to all men. I know they talk of the seal of confession; but let a man in Rome or Spain confess but an ill thought of the court of Rome, or any just scruple of the vanities there professed, and by bitter experience he will find how soon this seal is broken open, and the secrets of confession divulged. Besides, it is profane, as appeareth by the filthy and immodest questions enjoined to be put by the confessarius, mentioned in Bucharadus, Sanchez, and others.

Secondly, We are not against all confession, as the Papists slander as. Besides that to God, we hold many sorts of confessions necessary before men; as:—

1. Some public. And so by the church in ordinary or extraordinary humiliation: Lev. xvi. 21, `The congregation was to confess their sins over the head of the sacrifice., So Neh. ix. 3, `One part of the day they read the law, the other part they confessed., Thus, by the church. So also to the church, and that either (1.) Be fore entrance and admission, in which they did solemnly disclaim the impurities of their former life, professing to walk suitably to their new engagement for time to come: Mat. iii. 6, `They were baptized of him, confessing their sins., So also the apostles, in receiving members into the church, required the profession of faith and repentance, though there was not that scrupulous and narrow prying into their hearts and consciences which some practise; as John did not take a particular confession from every one of that multitude, it was impossible. So Acts xix. 18, `And many that believed confessed, and showed their deeds;, that is, solemnly disavowed their former life and practice. Or (2.) upon public scandals after admission, for of secret things the church judgeth not; but those scandalous acts, being faults against the church, cannot be remitted by the minister alone; the offence being public, so was the confession and acknowledgment to be public, as the apostle saith of the incestuous Corinthian, that `his punishment was inflicted by many, 2 Cor. ii. 6. And he biddeth Timothy `Rebuke open sinners in the face of all, 1 Tim. v. 20, which Aquinas referreth to ecclesiastical discipline. Now this was to be done, partly for the sinner's sake, that he might be brought to the more shame and conviction; and partly because of them without, that the community of the faithful might not be represented as an ulcerous, filthy body, and the church not be thought a receptacle of sin, but a school of holiness. And, therefore, as Paul shaked off the viper, so these were to be cast out, and not received again, but upon solemn acknowledgment. So Paul urgeth, 1 Cor. v. 6, `A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump;, and Heb. xii. 15, `Lest many be defiled, &c. In which places he doth not mean so much the contagion of their ill example, as the taint of reproach, and the guilt of the outward scandal, by which the house and body of Christ was made infamous.