iness. Reflections on our obligations to peace, humility, &c. 163 vi. James mourn, and weep: the guilt of such a conduct; and mourn and SECT. let your laughter be weep for the miseries which you have exposed turned to mourning, and your joy to heav. yourselves to by it. And instead of these vain indulgences, let your laughter be turned into.9 mourning, and [your] ill timed joy, into ex10 Humble your pressions of the deepest sorrow. On the 10 selves in the sight of whole, humble yourselves in the very dust before the Lord, whom by your sins you have offended; and you may hope he will return to you in the methods of his mercy, and raise you up again from that prostrate condition. the Lord, and he shall lift you up. IMPROVEMENT. And iv. 1 If we desire the character of wisdom, let us learn from the chap. oracles of eternal truth, how it is to be obtained, by meekness iii. 13 and a good conversation. Let us avoid that infernal wisdom, 15 here so severely and justly branded, which consists in knowing the most effectual methods to distress others. On the contrary, let us pray, and study, and labour for that which is from above, and of which so amiable a character is here given. And so far 17. as it can be obtained without injuring conscience, let us cultivate universal peace; and let a gentle and placable temper, an impartial and sincere disposition, be ever inviolably preserved, even when we are obliged to contend with others, about matters of the highest importance; remembering, that the more sacred the cause is, the more solicitous we should be that we do not injure it by a passionate or iniquitous management of it. Thus let us sow the fruits of righteousness in peace, and wait the promised 19 harvest; leaving wars and contentions to others, lamenting them, chap. and praying that God would cause them entirely to cease. that we may be less obnoxious to those temptations, whereby others are betrayed into them, let us endeavour to guard against those lusts and passions, which give a disproportionate value to 2 the objects about which those contentions arise. Does God brand them with this character of adultery? Let us preserve our 4 souls pure from such affections, as ever we desire that our prayers 3 should be acceptable to God. May his grace subdue all the workings of pride, of luxury, and of envy; and produce in our hearts more and more of that humility, to which he will give 6 more grace; engaging us, when thus invited, to draw near to him, to ask aright what we need from him, trusting his promise that he will draw nigh to us, and that when we humble ourselves be- 8 fore him, he will raise us up. Cleansing our hands, let us endeavour to purify our hearts too. So may those who have hitherto been double minded, hope to attain an establishment in religion, in conjunction with that established peace, which no carnal affection, even when most fully gratified, can either afford or admit. VOL. 6. 22 164 SECT. vii. James They should not speak evil of one another ; SECT. VII. The apostle suggests particular cautions against evil speaking, and vain confidence in the events of futurity, or in any worldly possessions, which often prove a temptation to luxury, and an occasion of ruin; and concludes the section with encouraging and exhorting afflicted and oppressed Christians to wait patiently for the coming of the Lord. James IV. 11.-V. 8. JAMES IV. 11. JAMES IV. 11. brethren. He that L ET me now charge you, my brethren, that SPEAK not evil ye speak not evil of one another; for he that one of another, speaketh evil of [his] brother, and judgeth [his] speaketh evil of his iv. 11 brother with a rash severity, therein speaketh brother, and judgevil of the law, and judgeth the law; condemn. eth his brother, ing it as if it were an erroneous rule, in so ex-law, and judgeth the speaketh evil of the pressly forbidding such a conduct.* But if law: but if thou thou thus judgest the law, and passest, as it judge the law, thou were, a condemning sentence upon it, thou art art not a doer of the then not a doer of the law, but a judge. And law, but a judge. how the arrogance of setting up such a superiority to the great Governor of the universe will pass, when it comes under his final review, it well becomes you seriously to consider. 12 For it is certain, there is one great almighty 12 There is one Law giver, who is able abundantly to assert the Law giver, who is honour of his own government; and as he able to save, and to can save his faithful and obedient subjects thou that judgest destroy who art from the greatest extremity of danger and ca- another? lamity, so he is also able to destroy the most obstinate and audacious rebel, and to smite him with irrecoverable ruin in the full career of his crimes. Who art thou therefore that judgest another? and darest to invade the office of this supreme and universal Law giver, and thereby exposest thyself to his condemnation? 13 But to insist no further upon this; let me now turn myself to those who are quite immersed in their worldly schemes, and promise themselves assuredly an opportunity to accomplish them. Speaketh evil of [his] brother, &c.] Dr. Whitby explains this of the unbelieving Jews reproaching their Christian brethren for their non observation of the Mosaic law; and thinks, the apostle inti 13 Go to now, yc mates, that as the ceremonial law was not originally intended for the Gentiles, this conduct was a reflection upon the wisdom of God in giving it. But I choose the more extensive explication. nor should they presume on the events of futurity. and continue there a bours. 165 vii. James that say, To day, or Come now, ye that say, To day, or Tomorrow, SECT. To morrow, we will we will go to such a city, and spend a year there, into such a city, and traffic, and get gain by our merchandize, year, and buy and and then return and enjoy the fruits of our la- iv. 13 sell, and get gain Alas! upon what an uncertainty do 14 14 Whereas ye know not what shall you proceed in such a supposition as this! be on the morrow: whereas, instead of being able to count on a for what is your year to come, ye know not even what [shall be] life? It is even a on the morrow, and much less, what the days vapour that appear eth for a little time, and months of a year may bring forth. For and then vanisheth what [is] your life, upon the continuance of away. Lord will, we shall that. which all your worldly projects depend? For it is only like a vapour that appeareth for a little while, and then vanishes away, and is seen no more; how gay soever its form might be, and how wide spever it might have extended itself. 15 For that ye Whereas ye [ought] to say in consideration of 15 ought to say, If the this, If the great Lord of our lives will please live, and do this or to lengthen them, we shall live, and do this or that, intimating even by your manner of speaking, the sense that you have, of his being able at pleasure to cut you short in all your purposes and appointments. But now you rejoice in your 16 joice in your boast- boastings; you take pleasure in this arrogant ings: all such re- and confident manner of talking: whereas, all joicing is evil. such rejoicing is evil, and ought to be corrected: 17 Therefore to And so much the rather, as you have been bet- 17 him that knoweth to ter instructed than many others, and therefore do good, and doeth ought to shew the good effect of these instruc it not, to him it is tions. For to him that knows to do good, and sin. does it not, to him it is aggravated sin; and it would have been much better for him, that he had wanted that degree of knowledge he had, than that he should thus abuse it. 16 But now ye re V. 1 Go to now, I direct these things especially to those who V. 1 have the advantage of the Christian revelation and institutions; but I confine not myself wholly to them. Let others pay them regard, in proportion to the degree in which they have opportunities of attaining Divine knowledge. Let them take the greatest care, that they do not abuse it. And let those especially be careful, whom Providence has distinguished by the fulproves ness of their circumstances; which often a temptation to vice, though it should in all reason and gratitude be an engagement to virtue and piety. Experience will soon teach many 166 James v. 1 They are reminded of their oppression and luxury. miseries, that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are eaten. SECT. Such the vanity of those things in which they ye rich men, weep vii. pride themselves, and which embolden them in and howl for your Come their transgressions of the Divine law. now therefore, ye rich men, weep, and even howl over the miseries that are speedily coming upon you, in those days which are nearly ap2 proaching. You have been solicitous to lay up abundant stores for your future subsistence corrupted, and your and security; but your riches are corrupted, garments are moth 3 and your garments aremoth eaten. Your gold, and 3 Your gold and your silver, which should have been brightened silver is cankered; by a generous circulation, have been hoarded and the rust of them shall be a witness aup, till they are cankered, and their rust shall gainst you, and shall be a witness against you in the sight of God, eat your flesh as it and so bring upon you such awful rebukes from were fire: ye have him, that it shall, as it were, eat into your flesh, gether for the last heaped treasure towith an anguish as piercing and corroding as days. fire itself. Ye have laid up treasures for the last days, for the last days are now coming, and the enemy shall seize and dissipate them all to 4 Behold, the hire 4 your infinite vexation and distress. Behold of the labourers, who the wages of the labourers, who have reaped your have reaped down fields, who have been defrauded by you of their your fields, which is of you kept back by due reward, cry for vengeance against you; fraud, crieth; and and the outcries of those who have gathered in the cries of them your harvest, have come into the ears of the Lord which have reaped, Te have lived delicately and luxuri- ears of the Lord of 5 of hosts. ously upon the earth, indulging yourselves in every desire that rose in your minds, without restraint. Ye have pampered your hearts, as beasts are fed for a day of slaughter, and truly ton; ye have nourto you it is much nearer than you are aware. ished your hearts, as 6 And well has the vengeance been deserved by in a day of slaughyou; for ye have condemned, [and] at last mur- 6 Ye have condered the righteous one, the Son of God him- demned and killed are entered into the sabaoth. 5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wan ter. Ye rich men, &c.] Josephus, (Bell. economy was to close, and when those Jud. v. 20, 30; iv. 19,) particularly ob- awful judgments, threatened in the proph serves, how much the rich men suffered ets to be poured out upon wicked men in by the Romans in the Jewish war. I the last days, are just coming. Acts ii. have rendered ranainagiais rais exepo- 17; Heb. i. 2; 2 Pet. iii. 3; and the like. Merass, miseries which are coming upon Compare Mat. xxiv. 33, 34; 1 Cor. x 11. you, and I think it more agreeable to the original, than our English version; eg xoμerais being a participle of the present tense. The last days.] This phrase does not merely signify, for the time to come, but for that period, when the whole Jewish For a day of slaughter: Er nega pans.] There are some who render this, as in a festival, when many sacrifices are slain. But Wolfius observes, that the word is always used in the Seventy to signify not a day of feasting, but of slaughter. not resist you. Reflections on the duty of the rich. 167 vii. James the just: and he doth self; [and] he doth not yet resist e with SECT. Since this is the case, since our Divine Mas- 7 latter rain. hearts for the com reward all your long suffering, and take ven- IMPROVEMENT. v. 6 LET the law of that one great Legislator, who is able both to chap. save and to destroy, be always seriously remembered and consid- iv. 12 ered; that we may not affront his authority in pretending to judge others, nor set up for judges, and in effect condemners of the law, by 11 the severity of those censures which we pass upon our brethren. We are happy in knowing that sacred rule of life, if we obey it; otherwise, that knowledge of it which adds an aggravation even to sins of omission, will much more aggravate every presumptu- 17 ous opposition to it. Let us look on this world as a scene of great uncertainty; and on life, as a flattering vapour, which vanishes while we are be- 14 holding it; and let a sense of its shortness and uncertainty, and of our own ignorance what shall be on the morrow, engage us to be very careful, that we do not presume upon the future, as if it Not resist you.] Instead of oux, Dr. Bentley would read ons, for o xugi, the Lord; and would render it, and the Lord resists you; that is, you have brought the vengeance of his almighty arm upon you. Memoirs of Literat. Vol. VI. page 173. |
