Thomas Manton · 6 of 60

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

Obs. 4. From that κατεργάζεται, worketh or perfecteth, many trials cause patience, that is, by the blessing of God upon them. Habits are strengthened by frequent acts; the more you act grace, the stronger; and often trial puts us upon frequent exercise: the apostle saith, chastening `yieldeth the quiet fruit of righteousness, τοῖς γεγυμνασμένοις, to them that are exercised thereby, Heb. xii. 11. The fruit of patience is not found after one affliction or two, but after we are exercised and acquainted with them: the yoke after a while beginneth to be well settled, and by much bearing, we learn to bear with quietness, for use perfecteth; as we see those parts of the body are most solid that are most in action, and trees often shaken are deeply rooted. Well, then: (1.) It showeth how careful you should be to exercise yourselves under every cross; by that means you come to get habits of grace and patience: neglect causeth decay, and God withdraweth his hand from such as are idle: in spirituals, as well as temporals, `diligence maketh rich, Prov. x. 4. (2.) It showeth that if we murmur or miscarry in any providence, the fault is in our own hearts, not in our condition. Many blame providence, and say they cannot do otherwise, their troubles are so great and sharp. Oh! consider, trials, yea, many trials, where sanctified, work patience: that which you think would cause you to murmur, is a means to make you patient. The evil is in the unmortifiedness of your affections, not in the misery of your condition. By the apostle's rule, the greater the trial the greater the patience, for the trial worketh patience. There is no condition in the world but giveth occasion for the exercise of grace.

Obs. 5. From that patience, the apostle comforteth them with this argument, that they should gain patience; as if that would make amends for all the smart of their sufferings. The note is, that it is an excellent exchange to part with outward Comforts for inward graces. Fiery trials are nothing if you gain patience. Sickness, with patience, is better than health; loss, with patience, is better than gain. If earthly affections were more mortified, we should value inward enjoyments and experiences of God more than we do. Paul saith, 2 Cor. xii. 9, `I will glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me: `misery and calamities should be welcome, because they gave him further experiences of Christ. Certainly, nothing maketh afflictions burthensome to us but our own carnal affections.

Obs. 6. From the same, we may observe more particularly, that patience is a grace of an excellent use and value. We cannot be Christians without it; we cannot be men without it: not Christians, for it is not only the ornament, but the conservatory of other graces. How else should we persist in well-doing when we meet with grievous crosses? Therefore the apostle Peter biddeth us, 2 Peter i. 5, 6, to `add to faith, virtue; to virtue, knowledge; to knowledge, temperance; to temperance, patience., Where are all the requisites of true godliness? It is grounded in faith, directed by knowledge; defended, on the right hand, by temperance against the allurements of the world; on the left, by patience against the hardships of the world. You see we cannot be Christians without it; so, also, not men. Christ saith, `In patience possess your souls, Luke xxi. 19. A man is a man, and doth enjoy himself and his life by patience: otherwise we shall but create needless troubles and disquiets to ourselves, and so be, as it were, dispossessed of our own lives and souls that is, lose the comfort and the quiet of them.

Ver. 4. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting in nothing.

Here he cometh to show what patience is right, by way of exhortation, pressing them to perseverance, integrity, and all possible perfection. I will open what is difficult in the verse.

Ἔργον τέλειον, her perfect work. For the opening of this, know that in the apostle's time there were divers that with a great deal of zeal bore out the first brunt, but being tired, either with the diversity or the length of evils, they yielded and fainted; therefore he wisheth them to tarry till patience were thoroughly exercised, and its perfection discovered. The highest acts of graces are called the perfection of them: as of Abraham's faith we say, in ordinary speech, there was a perfect faith; so when patience is thoroughly tried by sundry and long afflictions, we say there is a perfect patience. So that the perfect work of patience is a resolute perseverance, notwithstanding the length, the sharpness, and the continual succession of sundry afflictions. One trial discovered patience in Job; but when evil came upon evil, and he bore all with a meek and quiet spirit, that discovered patience perfect, or sufficiently exercised. It followeth:—

That you may be perfect and entire, wanting in nothing. The apostle's intent is not to assert a possibility of perfection in Christians: `We all fail in many things, James iii. 2. And all that we have here is but in part: 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10, `We know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away., Here grace must needs be imperfect, because the means are imperfect. But his meaning is either that we should be sincere, as sincerity is called perfection in scripture: Gen. xvii. 1, `Walk before me, and be thou perfect;, so it is in the original and marginal reading, what in our translation is, `be thou upright;, or else it is meant of the perfection of duration and perseverance; or rather, lastly, that perfection is intended which is called the perfection of parts,—that we might be so perfect, or entire, that no necessary grace might be lacking—that, having other gifts, they might also have the gift of patience, and the whole image of Christ might be completed in them—that nothing might be wanting which is necessary to make up a Christian. Some, indeed, make this a legal sentence, as implying what God may in justice require, and to what we should in conscience aim to wit, exact perfection, both in parts and degrees. It is true this is beyond our power; but because we have lost our power, there is no reason God should lose his right. It is a saying of Austin, O homo, in praeceptione cognosce quid debeas habere, et in correptione cognosce tuo te vitio non habere. Such precepts serve to show God's right, and quicken us to duty, and humble us with the sense of our own weakness. So much God might require, and so much we had power to perform, though we have lost it by our own default. This is true, but the former interpretations are more simple and genuine.

The notes are these:—

Obs. 1. The perfection of our graces is not discovered till we are put upon many and great trials. As a pilot's skill is discerned in a storm, so is a Christian's grace in many and great troubles. Well, then, in all that doth befall you, say, Yet patience hath not had its perfect work. Expectation of a worse thing maketh lesser troubles more comportable; yet trust and patience is not drawn out to the height. The apostle saith, Heb. xii. 4, `Yet ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin., Should we faint in a lesser trial, before the perfect work cometh to be discovered? Job was in a sad condition, yet he putteth a harder case: Job xiii. 15, `If he should kill me, yet I will trust in him: `in a higher trial I should not faint or murmur.

Obs. 2. That the exercise of grace must not be interrupted till it be full and perfect—till it come to ἔργον τέλειον, a perfect work. Ordinary spirits may be a little raised for a time, but they fall by and by again: Gal. v. 7, `Ye did run well; who hindered you?, You were in a good way of faith and patience, and went happily forward; but what turned you out of the way? Implying there was as little, or rather less, reason to be faint in the progress as to be discouraged in the beginning. Common principles may make men blaze and glare for a while, yet afterward they fall from heaven like lightning. It is true of all graces, but chiefly of the grace in the text. Patience must last to the end of the providence, as long as the affliction lasteth; not only at first, but when your evils are doubled, and the furnace is heated seven times hotter. Common stubbornness will bear the first onset, but patience holdeth out when troubles are continued and delayed. The apostle chideth the Galatians because their first heat was soon spent: Gal. iii. 3, `Are ye so foolish? having begun in the spirit, are ye made perfect in the flesh?, It is not enough to begin; our proceedings in religion must be answerable to our beginnings. To falter and stagger after much forwardness, showeth we are `not fit for the kingdom of God, Luke ix. 62. The beasts in the prophet always went forward (see Ezek. i. 11); and crabs, that go backward, are reckoned among unclean creatures, Lev. xi. 10. Nero's first five years are famous; and many set forth well, but are soon discouraged. Liberius, the Bishop of Home, was zealous against the Arians, and was looked upon as the Samson of the church, the most earnest maintainer of orthodoxism; suffered banishment for the truth; but alas! he after failed, and to recover his bishopric (saith Baronius), sided with the Arians. Well, then, while you are in the world, go on to a more perfect discovery of patience, and follow them that, `through faith, and a continued patience, have inherited the promises, Heb. vi .12.

Obs. 3. That Christians must aim at, and press on to perfection. The apostle saith, `That ye may be perfect and entire, nothing wanting, (1.) Christians will be coveting, and aspiring to, absolute perfection. We are led on to growth by this aim and desire: they hate sin so perfectly, that they cannot be quiet till it be utterly abolished. First, they go to God for justification, ne damnet, that the damning power of sin may be taken away; then for sanctification, ne regnet, that the reigning power of sin may be destroyed; then for glorification, ne sit, that the very being of it may be abolished. And as they are bent against sin with a mortal and keen hatred, so they are carried on with an earnest and importunate desire of grace. They that have true grace will not be contented with a little grace; no measures will serve their turn. `I would by any means attain to the resurrection of the dead, saith Paul, Phil. iii. 11; that is, such a state of grace as we enjoy after the resurrection. It is a metonymy of the subject for the adjunct. Free grace, you see, hath a vast desire and ambition; it aimeth at the holiness of the glorious and everlasting state; and, indeed, this is it which makes a Christian to press onward, and be so earnest in his endeavours; as Heb. vi. 1, with 4, `Let us go on to perfection;, and then ver. 4, `It is impossible for those that were once enlightened, &c., implying that men go back when they do not go on to perfection; having low aims, they go backward, and fall off. (2.) Christians must be actually perfect in all points and parts of Christianity. As they will have faith, they will have patience; as patience, love and zeal. In 1 Peter i. 15, the rule is, `Be ye holy, as I am holy, in all manner of conversation., Every point and part of life must be seasoned with grace, therefore the apostle saith, ἐν πάσῃ ἀναστροφῇ, in every creek and turning of the conversation: so 2 Cor. viii. 7, `As ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, see that ye abound in this grace also., Hypocrites are always lacking in one part or another. The Corinthians had much knowledge and utterance, and little charity; as many professors pray much, know much, hear much, but do not give much; they do not `abound in this also., As Basil saith in his sermon ad Divites, I know many that fast, pray, sigh, πάσαν τὴν ἀδάπανον εὐλάβειαν ἐκδιανυμένους, love all cheap acts of religion, and such as cost nothing but their own pains, but are sordid and base, withholding from God and the poor, τὶ ὀφέλος τουτοῖς τῆς λοίπης ἀρετῆς. What profit have they in their other graces when they are not perfect? There is a link and cognation between the graces; they love to go hand in hand, to come up as in a dance, and consort, as some expound the apostle's word, ἐπιχορηγήσατε: 2 Peter i. 5, `Add to faith, virtue., Ac. One allowed miscarriage or neglect may be fatal. Say, then, thus within yourselves—A Christian should be found in nothing wanting. Oh! but how many sad defects are there in my soul! if I were weighed in God's balance, I should be found much wanting! Oh, strive to be more entire and perfect. (3.) They aim at the perfection of duration, that, as they would be wanting in no part of duty, so in no part of their lives. Subsequent acts of apostasy make our former crown to wither; they lose what they have wrought, 2 John 8. All their spiritual labour formerly bestowed is to no purpose, and whatever we have done and suffered for the gospel, it is, in regard of God, lost and forgotten. So Ezek. xviii. 24, `When he turneth to iniquity, all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned., As under the law, if a Nazarite had defiled himself, he was to begin all anew: Num. vi. 12, `The days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was denied;, as if he had fulfilled the half part of his vow, or three parts of his vow, yet all was to be null and lost upon every pollution, and he was to begin again. So it is in point of apostasy; after, by a solemn vow and consecration, we have separated ourselves to Christ, if we do not endure to the end, all the righteousness, zeal, and patience of our former profession is forgotten.

Ver. 5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

The apostle, having spoken of bearing afflictions with a mind above them, cometh here to prevent an objection, which might be framed thus: This is a hard saying, to keep up the spirit not only in patience, but joy; when all things are against us, who can abide it? .Duty is soon expressed, but how shall we get it practised? The apostle granteth it is hard, and it will require a great deal of spiritual skill and wisdom, which, if you want (saith he), God will furnish you, if you ask it of him; and upon this occasion digresseth into the rules and encouragements of prayer: in this verse he encourageth them by the nature and promise of God. But to the words.

If any of you—This if doth not argue doubt, but only inferreth a supposition. But why doth the apostle speak with a supposition? Who doth not lack wisdom? May we not ask, in the prophet's question, `Who is wise? who is prudent?, Hosea xiv. 9. I answer—(1.) Such expressions do more strongly aver and affirm a thing, as Mal. i. 6: `If I be a father, where is my honour? If I be a master, where is my fear?, Not as if God would make a doubt of these things, but such suppositions are the strongest affirmations, for they imply a presumption of a concession: you will all grant, I am a father and a master, &c. So here, if you lack wisdom: you will grant you all lack this skill. So Rom. xiii. 9, `If there be any other commandment, &c. The apostle knew there was another commandment, but he proceeded upon that grant. So 2 Thes. i. 6, εἴπερ, `If it be a righteous thing, &c. The apostle taketh it for granted it is righteous to render tribulation to the troubler, and proceedeth upon that grant: and therefore we render it affirmatively, `seeing it is, &c. So James v. 15, `If he hath committed sins., Why, who hath not? It is, I say, a proceeding upon a presumption of a grant. (2.) All do not lack in a like manner: some want only further degrees and supplies; therefore, if you lack; with a supposition, if you lack it wholly, or only more measures.

Wisdom. It is to be restrained to the circumstances of the text, not taken generally: he intendeth wisdom or skill to bear afflictions; for in the original the beginning of this verse doth plainly catch hold of the heel of the former, ἐν μηδενὶ λειπόμενοι and then εἰ δέ τις ὑμῶν λείπεται—`lacking nothing, and presently, `if any of you lack.,

Let him ask it; that is, by serious and earnest prayer.

Of God; to whom our addresses must be immediate.

That giveth to all men.—Some suppose it implieth the natural beneficence and general bounty of God, as indeed that is an argument in prayer; God, that giveth to all men, will not deny his saints: as the psalmist maketh God's common bounty to the creatures to be aground of hope and confidence to his people, Ps. cxlv. 16, `Thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing;, and upon this his trust groweth, ver. 19, `He will fulfil the desires of them that fear him., He that satisfieth every living thing certainly will satisfy his own servants. There is a general bounty of God, which though liberally dispensed, yet is not specially. But this sense the context will not bear. By all men, then, may be understood all kinds of persons—Jew, Greek, or barbarian, high or low, rich or poor. God giveth not with a respect to outward excellency; he giveth to all men: or else, (3.) and so most suitably to the context, to all askers, all that seek him with earnestness and trust; however, it is thus generally expressed, that none might be discouraged, but apply himself to God with some hope.

Liberally.—The word in the original is ἁπλῶς, which properly signifieth simply, but usually in matters of this nature it is taken for bountifully. I note it the rather to explain many other places; as Mat. vi. 22: Christ would have the `eye single, that is, bounteous, not looking after the money we part with: so Rom. xii. 8, `He that giveth, let him do it ἐν ἁπλότητι, with simplicity, we read, but in the margin, `liberally, or bountifully., So Acts ii. 46, `They did eat their bread with all singleness of heart;, that is, bounteously, liberally, as we translate the word in other places, as 2 Cor. viii. 2, `The riches of your singleness, we translate `liberality:, so 2 Cor. ix. 11, the same word is used for bounty; and this word simplicity is so often put for bounty, to show—(1.) That it must come from the free and single motion of our hearts; as they that give sparingly give with a hand half shut and a heart half willing; that is, not simply, with a native and free motion. (2.) That we must not give deceitfully, as serving our own ends, or with another intent than our bounty seemeth to hold forth: so God gives simply, that is, as David expresseth it, 2 Sam. vii. 21, according to his own heart.

And upbraideth no man.—Here he reproveth another usual blemish of man's bounty, which is to upbraid others with what they have done for them, and that eateth out all the worth of a kindness: the laws of courtesy requiring that the receiver should remember, and the giver forget: but God upbraideth not. But you will say, what is the meaning then of those expostulations concerning mercies received? and why is it said, Mat. xi. 20, `Then he began to upbraid the cities, in which many of his mighty works were done,? Because of this objection, some expound this clause one way, some another; some suppose it implieth he doth not give proudly, as men use to do, up braiding those that receive with their words or looks: so God upbraideth not, that is, doth not disdainfully reject the asker, or twit him with his unworthiness, or doth not refuse because of present failings, or former infirmities. But I think it rather noteth God's indefatigableness to do good: ask as oft as you will, he upbraideth you not with the frequency of your accesses to him: he doth not twit us with asking, though he twitteth us with the abuse of what we have received upon asking. He doth upbraid, not to begrudge his own bounty, but to bring us to a sense of our shame, and to make us own our ingratitude.

And it shall be given him.—Besides the nature of God, here he urgeth a promise, `Let him ask of God, and it shall be given him., The descriptions of God help us to form right thoughts of him, and the promise, to fasten upon him by a sure trust.

The notes are these:—

Obs. 1. That all men are concluded and shut up under an estate of lacking: `If any of you., This supposition, as we showed before, is a universal affirmative. God's wisdom suffereth the creatures to lack, because dependence begetteth observance; if we were not forced to hang upon heaven, and live upon the continued supplies of God, we would not care for him. We see this—the less sensible men are of the condition of mankind, the less religious. Promises usually invite those that are in want, because they are most likely to regard them: Isa. lv. 1. `Ho, every one that thirsteth, and he that hath no money;, Mat. xi. 28, `The weary and heavy laden., In the 5th of Matthew, `The poor in spirit, and `they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: `being humbled by their own wants and needs, they are most pliable to God's offers. Well, then, do not think your lot is above the lot of the rest of the creatures. God only is αὐτάρκης, self-happy, self-sufficient; other things are encompassed with wants, that they may look after him: Ps. cxlv. 15, 16, `The eyes of all things are upon thee, and thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing., The creatures are made up of desires, that their eyes may be upon God. Certainly they want most that want nothing: be sensible of your condition.

Obs. 2. From that lack, want and indigence put us upon prayer, and our addresses to heaven begin at the sense of our own needs. The father should not have heard from the prodigal, had he not `begun to be in want, Luke xv. 16. Observe it: the creature first beginneth with God out of self-love. The first motive and allurement is the supply of our wants. But, remember, it is better to begin in the flesh and end in the spirit, than to begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. It is well that God sanctifieth our self-love to so blessed a purpose. If there had not been so many miseries, of blindness, lameness, possessions, palsies, in the days of Christ's flesh, there would not have been such great resort to him. The first motive is want.

Obs. 3. From that wisdom, considered with respect to the context; and the note is, that there is need of great wisdom for the right managing of afflictions. Cheerful patience is a holy art and skill which a man learneth of God: `I have learned to abound, and to be abased, Phil. iv. 10. Such an hard lesson needeth much learning. There is need of wisdom in several respects:—(1.) To discern of God's end in it, to pick out the language and meaning of the dispensation: Micah vi. 9, `Hear the rod., Every providence hath a voice, though sometimes it be so still and low that it requireth some skill to hear it. Our spirits are most satisfied when we discern God's aim in everything. (2.) To know the nature of the affliction, whether it be to fan or to destroy; how it is intended for our good; and what uses and benefits we may make of it: `Blessed is the man whom thou chastisest, and teachest out of thy law, Ps. xciv. 12. The rod is a blessing when instruction goeth along with it (3.) To find out your own duty; to know the things of obedience in the day of them: `Oh! that thou wert wise in this thy day, Luke xix. 41. There are seasonable and proper duties which become every providence: it is wisdom to find them out; to know what to do in every circumstance. (4.) To moderate the violences of our own passions. He that liveth by sense, will, and passion, is not wise. Skill is required of us to apply apt counsels and comforts, that our hearts may be above the misery that our flesh is under. The Lord `giveth counsel in the reins, and that calmeth the heart. Well, then: (1.) Get wisdom, if you would get patience. Men of understanding have the greatest command of their affections. Our hastiness of spirit cometh from folly, Prov. xiv. 29; for where there is no wisdom, there is nothing to counterbalance affection. Look, as discretion sets limits to anger, so it doth to sorrow. Solomon saith, Prov. xix. 11, `The discretion of a man deferreth his anger;, so it doth check the excesses of his grief. (2.) To confute the world's censure; they count patience, simplicity, and meekness under injuries, to be but blockishness and folly. No; it is a calmness of mind upon holy and wise grounds; but it is no new thing with the world to call good evil, and to baptize graces with a name of their own fancying. As the astronomers call the glorious stars bulls, snakes, dragons, &c., so they miscall the most shining and glorious graces. Zeal is fury; strictness, nicety; and patience, folly! And yet James saith, `If any lack wisdom, meaning patience. (3.) Would ye be accounted wise? Show it by the patience and calmness of your spirits. We naturally desire to be thought sinful rather than weak. `Are we blind also?, John ix. 40. We all affect the repute of wisdom, and would not be accounted blind or foolish. Consider, a man of boisterous affections is a fool, and he that hath no command of his passions hath no understanding.

Obs. 4. From that of God, in all our wants we must, immediately repair to God. The scriptures do not direct us to the shrines of saints, but to the throne of grace. You need not use the saints, intercession; Christ hath opened a way for you into the presence of the Father.

Obs. 5. More particularly observe, wisdom must be sought of God. He is wise, the fountain of wisdom, an unexhausted fountain. His stock is not spent by misgiving. See Job xxxii. 8, `There is a spirit in man; but the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding., Men have the faculty, but God giveth the light, as the dial is capable of showing the time of the day when the sun shineth on it. It is a most spiritual idolatry to `lean to our own understanding., True wisdom is a divine ray, and an emanation from God. Men never obtain it but in the way of a humble trust. When we see our insufficiency and God's all-sufficiency, then the Lord undertaketh for us, to direct us and guide us: Prov. iii. 5, 6, `Acknowledge the Lord in all thy ways, and he shall direct thy paths., When men are conceited, and think to relieve their souls by their own thoughts and care, they do but perplex themselves the more. God will be acknowledged, that is, consulted with, in all our undertakings and conflicts, or else we shall miscarry. The better sort of heathens would not begin anything of moment without asking counsel at the oracle. As all wisdom is to be sought of God, so especially this wisdom, to bear afflictions. There is nothing more abhorrent from reason than to think ourselves happy in misery. We must go to another school than that of nature. I confess reason and nature may offer some rules that may carry a man far in the art of patience; but what is an inferior or grammar school to a university? The best way will be, not to go to nature, but Christ, `in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Col. ii. 3.

Obs. 6. From that let him ask, God will have everything fetched out by prayer; he giveth nothing without asking. It is one of the laws according to which heaven's bounty is dispensed: Ezek. xxxvi. 37, `I will be sought to by the house of Israel for this thing., God will have us see the author of every mercy by the way of obtaining it. It is a comfort and a privilege to receive mercies in a way of duty; it is better to ask and not receive, than to receive and not ask. Prayer coming between our desires and the bounty of God is a means to beget a due respect between him and us: every audience increaseth love, thanks, and trust, Ps. cxvi. 1, 2. We usually wear with thanks what we win by prayer; and those comforts are best improved which we receive upon our knees. Well, then, wisdom and every good gift is an alms—you have it for the asking. Mercies at `that rate do not cost dear. Oh! who would not be one of that number whom God calleth his suppliants? Zeph. iii. 10; of `the generation of them that seek him,? Ps. xxiv. 6.