IIPOAEIO'MENA,
OR,
PREFACE WHEREIN, BESIDES AN EXPLICATION OF THE TITLE, SEVERAL NECESSARY PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS ARE HxiNDLED AND DISCUSSED.
I INTEND, by the assistance of God's Holy Spirit, in the weekly returns of this lecture, to handle the Epistle of James. It is full of useful and practical matter. I have the rather chosen this scripture that it may be an allay to those comforts which, in another exercise, I have endeavoured to draw out of the 53d of Isaiah. I would, at the same time, carry on the doctrine both of faith and manners, and show you your duties together with your encouragements, lest, with E})hraim, you should only love to tread out the corn, and refuse to break the clods, Plosea x. 11. We are all apt to divorce comfort from duty, and to content ourselves with a ' barren and unfruitful know- ledge ' of Jesus Christ, 2 Peter i. 8 ; as if all that he required of the world were only a few naked, cold, and inactive apprehensions of his merit, and all things were so done for us, that nothing remained to be done bt/ tis. This is the wretched conceit of many in the present age, and therefore, either they abuse the sweetness of grace to loose- ness, or the j)ower of it to laziness. Christ's merit and the Spirit's efficacy are the commonplaces from whence they draw all the defences and excuses of their own wantonness and idleness. It is true God hath opened an excellent treasure in the church to defray the debts of humble sinners, and to bear the expenses of the saints to heaven ; but there is nothing allowed to wanton prodigals, who spend freely and sin lavishly u[)un the mere account of the riches of grace ; as in your charitable bequests, when you leave moneys in the way of a stock, it is to encourage men in an honest calling, not to feed riot and excess. Who ever left a sum for drunkards, or a stock to be employed in dicing and gaming ? Again, I confess, whatever grace doth, it doth freely ; we liave ' grace for grace,' i John i. 16 ; that is, grace for graces sake. But there is a difference between merit and means ; a schoolmaster may teach a child gratis, freely, and yet he must take pains to get his learning. And tliere is a difference between causality
1 X'^P"' ^'^^ X^fp"""*! it^ est, non pro uUo merito, Bed ex me a, bonitate, qnod alibi dis- tluctius enuLciat apostolus, xaplaiuira. /cari T7\v x^P"'- — Rom. xii. C (Grot, in locum).
A PREFACE TO THE WHOLE EPISTLE. 9
and order. Mercy is never obtained but in the use of means ; wisdom's dole is dispensed at wisdom's gate, Prov, viii. 34. But the use of means doth not oblige God to give mercy ; there are conditions which only show the way of grace's working. Again, I grant that closing with Christ is an excellent duty, and of the highest importance in religion. But in Christ there are no dead and sapless branches ; faith is not an idle grace ; wherever it is, it fructifieth in good works. To evince all this to you, I have chosen to explain this epistle. The apostle wrote it upon the same reason, to wit, to prevent or check their misprisions who cried up naked apprehensions for faith, and a barren profession for true religion. Such unrelenting lumps of sin and lust were there even in the primitive times, gilded with the specious name of Christians.
The epistle in our translation beareth title thus, The Epistle General of James ; in the Greek, 'laKco/Bov tov uiroaToXov iTriaToXr) KadoXiKt) — the Catholic, or General Epistle of James the Apostle ; for the clearing of which, before I enter upon the body of the epistle, give me leave to premise these questions : —
1. Whether this epistle be of divine authority ?
2. Concerning the subordinate author or instrument, James, what
James this was ?
3. What was the time of writing it ?
4. The persons to whom it was written,
5. What is -the occasion, matter, and scope of it?
6. The reason of that term in the title, catholic or general.
I. Concerning the divine authority of this epistle, I desire to discuss it with reverence and trembling. It is dangerous to loosen foundation stones. I should wholly have omitted this part of my work, but that the difference is so famous ; and to conceal known adversaries is an argument of fear and distrust. The Lord grant that the cure be not turned into a snare, and that vain men may not unsettle themselves by what is intended for an establishment ! That which gave occasion to doubt of this epistle was some passages in Jerome and Eusebius, in which they seem, at least by reporting the sense of others, to infringe the authority of it. I shall give you the passages, and then show you what little reason there is why they should jostle James out of tlie canon. The passage of Eusebius runneth thus : — Kal ra Kara tov 'laKco/Bov, ov 1) TrpcoTT] roiv iTna-ro\6)v rcov ovo/jba^o/xevoov KaOoXiKOiv elvat Xeyerai, iareov &j? voOeverai, fxev ov iroXkoi <^/ovv roiv TrdXai avri)^ ifivr]/u.6v€vaav, cw? ovSe T>}9 XeyofjLeviTi ^lovha, /j.ia<i koX avTrj<; ova'qq rcbv \6yo/J,eva)U KadoXcKcov o/x&)9 S" ta-fzev koI TavTa<i [xera rcov Xolttcov iv ifkeiaTaL'i iKKk'qaiai'^, &c. ;^ that is, 'And these things concerning James, whose epistle that is reported to be, which is the first among the epistles called universal ; 2 yet we are to understand that the same is not void of suspicion, for many of the ancients make no mention thereof, nor of Jude, being also one of the seven called universal ; yet notwithstanding we know them to be publicly read in most churches : ' so far Eusebius. The other passage of Jerome, ^ is this : — Jacobus unam tantum scripsit