THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF St. JAMES. The Epistle of St. James, together with the six following Epistles, have gone under the name of Catholie Epistles for many ages, because, say some, they were not written to a particular city or country, as most of St. Paul's Epistles were, but to all the christian Jews abroad, dispersed into several countries throughout the world, whose suffering condition rendered the consolation which this Epistle affords very need. ful and necessary, as being greatly supporting. The author and peuman of it was St. James, commonly called James the Less, and our Lord's brother, the son of Alpheus, styled also James the Just, and bishop of Jerusalem; consequently its authority cannot reasonably be questioned. The design of the Epistle is, first, to establish the christian Jews in a well-ordered religious course of life, and to fortify them against suffering from the unbelieving Jews: Secondly, to correct a pernicious error about the sufficiency of a naked faith, and empty profession without practice, &c. which sprung from a misunderstanding and abuse of the way of justification by faith; the design of St. Paul in Ep. Rom. (of which we have the same in Acts iv. 12.) was to manifest that Christ was the only One, and christianity the only way, to set us criminals clear with God, so as to bring us to himself in glory. And St. James shows us, that it is not the bare belief and profession of the christian faith, but the power and practical improvement of it, that must make or render it saving to us. CHAP. I. JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. Observe, here, 1. The author and penman of this epistle described by his name, James; by his office, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, by special office, as a dispenser of his gospel. It is the highest honour that can be conferred upon the greatest person, to be the servant of Christ, especially in the quality of an ambassador. Note also, How St. James styles himself the servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some read the words conjoined, others disjoined; conjoined, thus, James, a servant of Jesus Christ, who is God and Lord; and thus the fathers urged this text against the Arians, to prove the divinity and godhead of Christ: others read the words disjoined, thus, James, a servant of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. This latter reading seems most natural, and less strained, and affords an argument for proving the divinity of Christ no less weighty than the former; for as the Father is Lord as well as Jesus Christ, so Jesus Christ is God as well as the Father, and God will have all to honour the Son as they honour the Father. Observe, 2. The persons to whom this epistle is directed, to the twelve tribes scattered abroad; that is, to such and so many of the Jews as were converted to christianity, and were now dispersed and scattered into several countries and nations; to them is St. James excited and moved by God to write and direct this excellent epistle. Here note, by the way, these three things: 1. That God's own people in general may be dispersed and driven abroad from their own countries and habitations: it is no new thing to suffer in this kind, Heb. xi. 38. those of whom the world was not worthy, wandered in deserts and mountains, woods and caves. Note, 2. The severity of God's justice towards this people of the Jews, in particular; they were a sinning people, a sinful people, weary of God, sick of his worship, severe to his Son; and God grows sick and weary of them, and, according to his threatening, Deut. xxviii. 64. scattered them from one end of the earth unto the other, among all people. Lord! how dangerous and unsafe it is to rest upon and glory in our outward privileges! None had more, none had greater privileges than the Jews, yet for their sins the land spewed them out and God dispersed them, yea, made them an hissing and a by-word among the nations. Note, 3. The tenderness of God's love and care towards the faithful amongst them in and under this dispersion: he stirreth up St. James to write to the scattered tribes, and to apply seasonable comforts to them, and to all christians with them in a suffering state, which accordingly he does throughout this whole epistle. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Our apostle's design in this epistle being to support the believing Jews under their great sufferings for the cause of christianity, be first acquaints them with the nature of those sufferings which they might expect to fall under for the same; he calls them temptations, that is, trials; they are correcting trials for sin, and they are experimental trials of the truth of grace, and of the strength of grace: the afflictions of God's children are trials-castigatory, probatory trials. Note, 2. The advice given in these trials; to count it joy, all joy, when they fall into temptations, yea, into divers temptations; not that afflictions are in themselves joyous, the temptation or trial is not matter of joy, but of sorrow and heaviness considered in itself, but because of their good effects and sweet fruits, in proving our faith, and increasing our patience. But mark, he says, When ye fall into temptations, not when ye run yourselves into them, or draw them upon yourselves; we lose the comfort of our sufferings, when either by guilt or by imprudence we bring them upon ourselves. Note here, That trials, how evil and afflictive soever in themselves, and in their own nature, yet administer occasion of great joy to sincere christians, Rom. v. 3. We glory in tribulations; it denotes the highest joy, even to exultation and ravishment; there is joy resulting from the consideration of the glory that redounds to God, of the honour done to us, of the benefit done to the church and ourselves, by confirming the faith of others; evidencing the sincerity of grace to our selves, preparing us for, and giving us a swifter passage to, heaven. Note, 3. Our apostle's argument to press them to joy in, and rejoice under, their afflictions; and this is taken, 1. From the nature of them, they are trials of faith. 2. From the effect and fruit of them, they beget or work patience. Learn hence, 1. That the afflictions which the people of God meet with, are trials of all their graces, but especially of their faith. This is a radical grace; we live by faith, we work by love: now of all graces, Satan has a particular spite against the christian's faith, and God has a particular care for the preservation and perfection of it. Knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience; that is, it administer's matter and occasion for patience, and by the blessing of God upon it, it produces and increases patience; often trial puts us upon frequent exercises, and the frequent exercise of grace strengthens the habits of grace: consequently the more our trials are, the stronger will our patience be; Knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience: it follows, verse 4, 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. That is, "Let your patience and perseverance under sufferings resolutely continue and hold out to the end ;" this the apostle urges, because some persons bore out the first brunt and onset of persecution, but being exercised with diversity and length of trials, they fainted. Now, as if the aposthe had said, "If we will be complete christians, our patience must run parallel with our sufferings; thus shall we be perfect, not with an absolute perfection, but with a perfection of duration and perseverance. Learn, That afflictions sanctioned by God do tend exceedingly, not only to the increasing, but perfecting, of a christian's patience. Quest. But when has patience its perfect work, making the christian perfect and entire? Ausw. When there is a strong faith, as the foundation of that patience; when there is a christian fortitude and courage, enabling us to sustain trials; when there is an exact knowledge of our duty to bear afflictions with a meek and quiet spirit, with a bearing, forgiving spirit, yea, with a praying spirit, which includes the height of charity, under the highest provocations; in a word, where there is found with us an entire trust and dependency upon God's power and promise, and a cheerful submission and quiet resignation of our wills to his most holy, wise, and righteous will, in and under the sharpest trials and heaviest afflictions that can befall us; then has patience had its work, and the suffering christian, in a gospel-qualified sense, may be said to be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 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. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Observe here, 1. A truth necessarily supposed, that every man, more or less, lacketh wisdom to enable him patiently to bear, and prudently to manage, the afflictions of this life; and that there is need of greater wisdom to enable us to glorify God in a suffering hour. Observe, 2. The person directed to, in order to the obtaining of divine wisdom, for the patient bearing of afflictions; Let him ask it of God. He that wants wisdom, let him go to the fountain of wisdom. God gives not his blessings ordinarily without asking, and the best of blessings may be had for asking of the two it is much better to ask and not re : ceive, than to receive and not ask. Observe, 3. A great encouragement for all that lack wisdom to go unto God for it, drawn first from the bountiful manner of his giving. He giveth liberally, without upbraiding. Secondly, From the certainty of the gift, It shall be given him. God's liberality in giving what we ask, and many times more than we ask, yea, more than we can either ask or think, is a mighty encouragement to faith and fervency in prayer, to perseverance and importunity in praying; especially if we consider what is added, that as God giveth liberally, so he upbraideth not; that is, he neither upbraids them with their frequency and importunity in asking, nor yet with their great unworthiness of receiving; but instead thereof, subjoins an assurance of granting: It shall be given him. It is a mighty encouragement to pray, when we consider there is not only bounty in God, but bounty engaged by promise. Observe, 4. The condition required on our part must be observed and fulfilled, as well as the promise made on God's part: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Quest. What is it to ask in faith? Answ. The person praying must be in a state of believing; the petitioner must be a believer, the thing asked for must be an object of faith, by being the subject matter of some promise; a fervent prayer for that which God never promised, is a foul sin. Again, The manner of asking must be faithful, with a pure intention of God's glory, with cheerful submission to God's will, with fiducial recumbency upon God's promise, with great fervency and warmth of spirit; he that will prevail with Jacob, must wrestle with Jacob for a blessing. Observe, 5. The evil and danger of wavering and doubting in the matter of prayer; the evil of it is this, that it is perplexing and tormenting to the mind: He that wavereth is driven and tossed like a wave of the sea; an elegant similitude to set out the nature of doubting, when upon our knees in duty. And the danger of it is expressed, Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. Note, That doubtful and unbelieving persons, when they pray, though they receive something, yet they can expect nothing. Let him not think to receive any thing: if he does, it is more than could be expected, because more than God has promised. Doubting in prayer is a provocation to God; and when a man's prayer is a provocation, how can be expect his prayer should be either heard or answered? Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. By a double-minded man, we are to understand one that is divided in his own thoughts between two different ways and opinions, as if he had two minds, or two souls; many such there were in the apostle's days, judaizing brethren, that some. times would sort with the Jews, sometimes with the christians. Many such there are in our days, divided betwixt God and the world, between holiness and sin; like a needle between two load-stones, always wavering to and again, pointing frequently to both, but never fixed to either. Such a man, says our apostle, is unstable in all his ways; that is, in all his actions. Learn hence, That whilst men's minds are divided between God and their lusts, they must necessarily lead very anxious, un certain, and unstable lives, always fluctuating in great anxiety and uncertainty; for he is always at odds with himself, and in perpetual variance with his own reason. Where men's minds are double, their ways must necessarily be unstable. 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; 10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. 11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth : so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Our apostle having finished his necessary digression concerning prayer, in the foregoing verses, returns now to his former argument, concerning bearing afflictions with joy; and urges a strong reason here to enforce the duty, Let the brother of low degree, that is, such a christian as is brought low by persecution and sufferings for Christ, let him rejoice that God has exalted him, and made him rich in faith, and an heir of the kingdom, Nothing is more certain, than that the greatest abuses and sufferings for Christ, are an honour and exaltation to us; he adds, But let the rich rejoice in that he is made low, that is, when he loses any thing for Christ. As if the apostle had said, "Let the poor christian rejoice, in that he is spiritually exalted; and the rich man rejoice, in that he is spiritually humbled: a rich man's humility is his glory." Observe next, The apostle rendereth a reason why the rich man should have a lowly mind, in the midst of his flourishing condition because all the pomp and grandeur of riches fades like a flower, and he himself also is beautiful, but fading; fair, but vanishing. And he pursues the similitude of a flower in the 11th verse, showing, : that as the flower fadeth presently before the heat of the scorching sun, so the rich man fades, and all his riches are both transitory and passing. Learn hence, That it may and ought to comfort a christian that suffers loss for Christ by persecutors and persecution, to consider, that the things which he loseth for the sake of Christ, are things of a fading nature, which could not have been kept long by him, had they not been rent from him: but that which he se cures by his perseverance, is an everlasting treasure, reserved in the heavens for him; by parting with that which he could not keep, he makes sure of that which he can never lose. Well therefore may the rich man rejoic in his humiliation: Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, and the rich in that he is made low. 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. In these words the apostle lays down a forcible argument, to persuade christians to bear sufferings and persecutions with invincible patience, drawn from the blessedness which attends such a condition: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, &c. Note here, 1. The character of the person whom God pronounceth blessed, namely, not the man that escapeth temptations and trials in this life, but he that bears them with courage and constancy, with patience and submission. Note, 2. A description of that ample regard which shall be conferred upon such sufferers: They shall receive the crown of life. Where observe, the felicity of a future state is set forth by a crown, to denote the transcendency and perfection of it; and by a crown of life, to denote the perpetuity and duration of it. Note, 3. Here is an intimation of the time when this transcendant reward shall be dispensed, namely, when the suffering christian has finished his course with patience and perseverance: When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life. Learn from the whole, That a patient and constant enduring of trials and afflictions in this life, shall certainly be rewarded with a crown of blessedness and immortality in the life to come: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, &c. en of in scripture, temptations of seduction, temptations of suggestion, and temptations of affliction; the last were spoken of in the former verses, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. The second sort are spoken of in this verse, Let no man say when he is tempted to sin, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted by it, neither tempteth he any man to it. Note here, 1. That God is not the author of sin, nor tempts any man to the commission of it; if he did, our evil actions could not be properly sins, nor justly punishable by God; for no man can be justly punishable for that which he cannot help, and no man can help that which he is compelled unto; and it is very unreasonable to suppose that the same person should both tempt and punish. To tempt unto sin, is contrary to the holiness of God: and after that to chastise for the complying with the temptation, is contrary to the justice of God; God then is not the author of the sins of men. Note, 2. That men are very apt to charge their sins upon God, and to lay their faults at his door. Let no man say so; intimating, that men are very ready and apt to say so; and that it is not only a fault, but an impious assertion, to say that God tempts any man to sin. Let no man say: he speaks of it as a thing to be rejected with the utmost detestation, a thing so impious and dishonourable to God. Note, 3. The reason and argument which the apostle brings against this impious suggestion, God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man; that is, he cannot be drawn to any thing that is evil himself, and therefore it cannot be imagined he should have any inclination or design to seduce others. He can have no temptation to sin from his own inclination, for he has a perfect antipathy against it; and there is no allurement in sin to stir up any inclination in God towards it, for it is nothing but crookedness and deformity. And how can he be supposed to entice men to that which his own nature does abominate and abhor? For none tempt others to be bad but those who are first so themselves. Inference, 1. No doctrine then ought to be asserted, or can be maintained, which is contrary to the natural notions which men have of God, as touching his holiness, justice, and goodness. Inference, 2. If God tempts not us, let us never tempt him. This we do, when we tempt his providence, expecting his protection in an unwarrantable way; as when we are negligent in our calling, and yet depend upon God's providence to provide for our families, which is to approve our folly, and to countenance our sloth. Note, 4. The true account which our apostle gives of the prevalency and efficacy of temptation upon men; it is their own innate corruption, and vicious inclination, which doth seduce them to it. Every man is tempted, when he is drawn aside of his own lust, and enticed. Mark, He does not ascribe it to the devil; he may and does present the object, and by his instruments may and does solicit for our compliance. His temptations have a moving and exciting power, but can have no prevailing efficacy but from our own voluntary consent; it is our own lust closing with his temptations which produces the sin: for God's commanding us to resist the devil, supposes that his temptations are not irresistible. Learn hence, That man's worst enemy, and most dangerous tempter, is the corruption of his own heart and nature, because it is the inmost enemy, and because it is an enemy that is least suspected. A man's lust is himself, and nature teaches not to mistrust ourselves. What reason have we then perpetually to pray, that God would not lead us into temptation, but keep us by his good providence out of the way of temptation, because we carry about us such lusts and inclinations as will betray us to sin when powerful temptations are presented to us :-There is no such way then to disarm temptations, and take away the pow er of them, as by mortifying our lusts, and subduing our vicious inclinations. Note, 5. The account which our apostle gives of the pedigree, birth, and growth of sin : when lust, that is, our corrupt inclinations and vicious desires, have conceived, that is, gained the consent and approbation of the will, it bringeth forth and engageth the soul in sin; and sin, when it is finished in the deliberate outward action, and especially when by customary practice it becomes habitual, bringeth forth death, the wages of sin: the first approaches of sin are usually modest, but afterwards it makes bolder attempts; our wisdom is to resist the first beginnings of sin, for then we have most strength, and sin least; to suppress sin in the thoughts, to mortify lust in the heart, before it breaks forth in the life, and at last issue and terminate in death: for when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every |