138 Blessed is the man who endureth temptation. SECT. external circumstances; but let the principles of low degree rei. of Christianity instruct you, my brethren, to joice in that he is correct that mistake: and in this respect, let exalted: James i. 9 the brother of low degree, of a poor and obscure condition, rejoice in his exaltation; let him think of his dignity as a christian, and entirely acquiesce in his low sphere of life, for his circumstances do really give him such advantages for religion, by placing him under a shelter from many temptations,, that he has a much fairer probability than others, of rising to some emi10 nence in the heavenly world. But let the 10 But the rich, in rich man be greatly cautious, and if he allow that he is made low: himself to rejoice, let it not be in the height of because as the flowhis circumstances; but in the humiliation of shall pass away. er of the grass he his mind; for all other occasions of rejoicing are very precarious. And as for his distinction in this world, as the flower of the grass he 11 shall quickly pass away. For [no sooner] is the sun risen with a scorching heat,[but] immediate- no sooner risen with a ly the grass, which in spring looks so fair and burning heat, but it flourishing, is dried up; and the flower thereof, and the flower therewithereth the grass, that adorned it, loses its painted glories yet of falleth, and the much sooner; it falleth to the ground, and all grace of the fashion the beauty of its lovely form is perished; so also shall the rich of it perisheth : so shall the rich man also fade away in his paths, man fade away in his and though he may by prudent management, ways. or remarkable success, grow richer and richer, he dies in the midst of all his wealth, and it can no longer either delight or adorn him. 12 11 For the sun is 12 Blessed is You will be exercised with trials while you continue in the present world; but repine not the man that endurat them happy [is] the man who with a proper when he is tried, he eth temptation: for steadiness and fortitude of mind endures temp- shall receive the tation for being approved by such a course of crown of life, which them as the infinite wisdom of God shall appoint, he shall receive the crown of eternal life, which the Lord Jesus Christ has graciously The rich man in his humiliation.] Mr. Pyle explains this of a rich man's being stripped of his possessions by persecution, and so reduced for the sake of his adherence to Christianity; but this seems not properly opposed to the exaltation mentioned above. Indeed in any view it must be allowed a very difficult passage. But I have preferred the interpretation which seemed to be least entangled, and in the Lord hath prom No man when he is tempted, is tempted of God. 139 ised to them that promised to all them that love him, and express SECT. their love by such fidelity and zeal. love him. 13 Let no man say Let no when he is tempted, man who is tempted, say, I am tempted of God;8 eth he any man. James i. 13 rectitude and benevolence of his nature, that he tempteth not any man; but on the contrary, abhors all sin, and lays no man in any imaginable circumstances, under any necessity of com-, 14 But every man mitting it : But every man is tempted by the 14 is tempted, when he innate weakness of his own nature, in concuris drawn away of of his own lust, and rence with the circumstances of life in which enticed. he is placed, being allured by his own lusts, and for want of wisely and resolutely opposing the first rising of them, being ensnared to the ac15 Then when tual commission of sin: For the gradation is 15 lust hath conceived, much more swift and fatal than the generality it bringeth forth sin: of mankind are aware; and indeed lust having finished, bringeth conceived, brings forth actual sin, by a speedy forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren. birth, where perhaps the full indulgence of it Tempted of God.] The phrase, it seems, had formerly been in use; and there is a sense in which it is allowable. But the obDoxious sense is so much more obvious, that the apostle thought proper to advise it should be avoided for the future. Perhaps the word might have altered its signification, as it is certain many words do. Being allured and ensnared: exxoμeves 221 dexen?queros ] The original words have a singular beauty and elegance, containing VOL. 6. 19 an allusion to the method of drawing fishes out of the water with a hook, concealed under the bait, which they greedily devour. Finished, or perpetrated: arduouou.] The word is used in this sense by Polybius, in a passage quoted by Raphelius in loc. *Therefore be not deceived.] This is agreeable to the reading of the Alexandrian manuscript, which after un inserts xv, therefore; by which the connection is rendered more apparent. 140 Reflections on the temptations of good men. SECT. i. IMPROVEMENT. LET us learn this holy caution, and guard against those baits of lust under which death is concealed; remembering that God has made us with a power of determining our own actions, that 16, 14 he tempts none to evil, nor appoints to any such temptations as he 15, 13 knows to be in their own nature irresistible. Be our spiritual verse 5 enemies ever so powerful, or ever so artful, they cannot do us any hurt, till we betray ourselves into their hands. Yet certain it is, that their artifice and their power, in conjunction with the advantage which the corruption of our own hearts gives them, make it requisite, that conscious to ourselves of our deficiency in wisdom, we should ask it of God. Let the liberality with which he gives it, and the royal freedom with which he has promised it, encourage us to ask it with such constancy, that we may receive 6,7 daily supplies; and with firm confidence in his goodness, that we may not waver, and be like a wave of the sea tossed with the wind. Trusting in that supply of grace we receive from him, let us 2 go forth calmly and cheerfully to meet such trials as the infinite wisdom of God shall appoint for us, how various and pressing 3,4 soever they may be; remembering they tend to improve our patience, and by patience to perfect every other grace; and that 12 if we be not overcome, we shall be approved, and made more meet to receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him. And O, that the love of this blessed Lord, who has procured as well as promised it, may always render us superior to every trial, and more than conquerors through him that hath loved us, and thereby hath acquired to himself so just a claim to our supreme affection. With hearts faithfully engaged to him, and established in the firmest resolutions for his service, 9,10 let us look with indifference upon those worldly circumstances, about which they who have no sense of a higher interest are exceedingly solicitous; and let us regulate our value of all the good things of life, by a regard to their aspect upon our religious characters and hopes. If low circumstances may improve these, let us look upon them as true exaltation; and if wealth, and dignity, and applause, may endanger these, let us rather fear them, than aspire to them. Whatever we have obtained of those things which the men of the world are most ready to covet and admire, is transitory and fuding as the grass, or even as the flower of the field; and sometimes like those beautiful, but tender productions of vegetable nature, is consumed by the excess of those causes to which it owes its existence and its beauty. "Give us, O Lord, durable riches, and righteousness, and that honour which cometh from thee, and is immortal, as its great Original." Every good gift cometh from the Father of lights; 141 SECT. II. The apostle exhorts them to remember and acknowledge the manifold goodness of God, in the various blessings bestowed upon them; more especially in that of his regenerating grace, which should constrain them to the exercise of every virtue; especially to an ingenuous and candid reception of his word, and a concern resolutely and constantly to adhere to its directions; particularly by bridling their tongues, and succouring such as were afflicted. James I. 17, to the end. JAMES I. 17. neither shadow of turning. JAMES I. 17. THAT ye may i. E and every perbe fortified against every SECT. fect gift, is from a have in a manner becoming your temptation, and may be animated to be- ii. bove, and cometh christian prodown from the Father fession, remember, that every good gift, and 17 of lights, with whom every perfect gift which the children of men is no variableness, can receive, is from above; and the more completely excellent the benefit is, the more reason have they to acknowledge it, as descending from the great and eternal Father of lights, the blessed God, from whom reason and light, and joy are derived. The sun itself is but a feeble image of his glory, with whom there is no variableness, nor so much as any shadow of turning; whereas the sun is continually vary •Father of lights. It is the opinion of a more exact idea of the original; but as Glassius that this phrase only expresses there is all imaginable reason to believe the majesty and glory of God, as if the this was quite an accidental thing, I apostle had said, The most illustrious and thought it might have the appearance of glorious Father. But the accurate Bos affectation to have endeavoured to retain most justly imagines, that the allusion to the sun which there is in the following words, begins here; and that the phrase refers to the heathens calling that glorious luminary, the Father of light, and the author of light; some instances of which he produces. See Exercitat. Philolog. in loc. The learned Albert cites a passage from Macrobius, in which the same title is applied to Jupiter. Observ. Philolog. in loc. it. As neither boon nor present, would have been proper in this connection, I know not how to render foois and Sophiμece by different words: such is the poverty of our language, or the defect of my acquaintance with it. But the words, a completely excellent benefit, are inserted in the paraphrase, to preserve some little imitation of the original. As some learned men have observed that rpons arrosoμa is something of an astronomical phrase, and refers to the different aspects of the sun, b Every good gift, &c.] It is observable as it approaches one or the other tropic, that the apostle makes use of two different (see Dr. Bates's Works, p. 747,) I have words to express gift; the one of which been careful to express that sentiment. It is more poetical and sounding than the hath been the opinion of some persons other; and he has placed the words in that this is intended to oppose some heretsuch an order that they make an heroic ical notion of the influence of the stars in verse. So that were they to be rendered, the affairs of human life; but I know not "Every good gift, and every boon complete,' ," that any such ridiculous conceit had so it might perhaps give the English reader early a footing in the church. 142 C with the word of Who hath impregnated us with the word of truth. SECT. ing, and has no sooner arrived to its meridian, ii but it begins to descend to the west, or to its summer height, but it verges towards the winJames i. ter again; causing the direction of the shadows 18 it occasions, proportionably to vary. But 18 Of his own the immutable and everlasting God has conde- will begat he us scended to multiply those favours upon us as truth, that we should Christians, which s..ould bind our souls to him be a kind of first fruits. in the bonds of unchangeable love; for of his of his creatures. own sovereign will he impregnated us with the powerful word of his Divine and evangelical truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, more excellent than others, and in a peculiar manner separated and consecrated to him from among the rest of mankind. Let us be conscious of the honour he has hereby done us, and take heed that we do not sacrilegiously alienate ourselves from his service. 19 Therefore, my beloved brethren, that we may be 19 Wherefore,my thus religiously sacred to him, and ever em- beloved brethren, let ployed to the purposes he has directed, let every every man be swift man be swift to hear the instructions of his to hear, slow to speak,slow to wrath. word, and all the good advices which may be given him agreeable to the tenor of it; but be slow to speak, guarding solicitously against every rash and especially every proud and dictatorial expression; and slow to wrath, not easily yielding to provocations, how injuri20 ously soever he may be treated; For the 20 For the wrath God. wrath of man, even where it may be most ready of man worketh not Kind of first fruits.] It has often been observed, that this was addressed to the Jews who were first called to Christianity, before the gospel was preached to the Gentiles; but it will not follow, that all the dispersed of the twelve tribes to whom he addresses, were so called; and 'God did not intend there should afterwards be any distinction between them, and other Christians. I think it therefore much better to explain it, as referring to their Christian privileges in general. d Slow to wrath.] It is well known that the Jewish doctors were apt to contend very fiercely about their different opinions; but it is indeed so much the general infirmity of human nature, as unhappy experience teaches us, that the caution is of universal concern. • Worketh not the righteousness of God.] Some think the meaning is simply, A man, who is often a prey to angry passions, is incapable of performing that obedience which God requires; but promoting the interest of the kingdom of God, may be included in the meaning of working his righteousness; and this false zeal is so often defended under that notion, that I was willing in the paraphrase to point out that idea plainly. |