VOL. IV. B
18 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 1.
Ix)rd. We can prescribe notliing as necessary to be believed or done whicli is not according to his will or word. In short, we come not in our own name, and must not act with respect to our own ends; we are servants.
Obs. 4. A servant of God, and of Jesus Christ. — In all services we must honour tlie Father, and the Son also : John v. 23, ' God will have all to honour the Son as they honour the Father ;' that is, God will be lionoured and w()rshipi)ed only in Christ: John xiv. 1, 'Ye believe in God, believe also in me.' Believing is the highest worship and respect of the creature ; you must give it to the Son, to the second person as mediator, as well as to the Father. Do duties so as you may honour Christ in them ; and so —
First, Look for their acceptance in Christ. Oh! it would be sad if we were only to look to God the Father in duties. Adam hid himself, and durst not come into the presence of God, till the promise of Christ. The hypocrites cried, Isa. xxxiii. 14, ' Who shall dwell with consum- ing fire?' Guilt can form no other thought of God by looking upon him out of Christ; we can see nothing but majesty armed with wrath and power. But now it is said, Eph. iii. 12, that ' in Christ we have access with boldness and confidence ;' for in him those attributes, which are in themselves terrible, become sweet and comfortable ; as water, which is salt in the ocean, being strained througli the earth, becometh sweet in the rivers ; that in God which, out of Christ, strik- eth terror into the soul, in Christ begets a confidence.
Secondhj, Look for your assistance from him. You serve God in Christ: — [1.] When you serve God through Christ : Pliil. iv. 13, ' I can do all things, through Clu'ist that strengtheneth me.' When your own hands are in God's woi'k, your eyes must be to Christ's hands for support in it : Ps. cxxiii. 2, ' As the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters,' &c. ; you nuist go about God's work with his own tools.
[2.] When ye have an eye to the concernments of Jesus Christ in all your service of God. 2 Cor. v. 15. We must ' live to him that died for us ;' not only to God in general, but to him, to God that died for us. You must see how you advance his kingdom, propagate his truth, further the gloiy of Christ as mediator.
[3.] When all is done for Christ's sake. In Christ God hath a new claim in you, and ye are bought with his blood, that ye may be his servants. Under the law the great argument t« obedience was God's sovereignty : Thus and thus ye shall do, ' I am the Lord ;' as in Lev. xix. 37, and other places. Now the argument is gratitude, God's love, God's love in Christ : ' The love of Christ constraincth us,' 2 Cor. v. 14. The apostle often persuades by that motive — Be God's servants for Christ's sake.
Ohs. 5. To the twelve tribes toIdcJi are scattered abroad. — God looks after his afllicted servants : he moveth James to write to the scattered tribes : the care of heaven flourisheth towards you when you wither. A man would have thought these had been diiven away from God's care, wlicn llicy had bc^en driven away from the sanctuary. Ezek. xi. l(j, ' Thus saith'the Lo)d, though 1 have cast thein far off among the heathen, and have scattered them among the countries,
JaS. I. 1.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 19
yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the places where they come/ Though they wanted the temple, yet God would be a little sanctuary. He looks after them, to watch their spirits, that he may apply seasonable comforts ; and to watch their adversaries, to prevent them with seasonable providences. He looketh after them to watch the seasons of deliverance, ' that he may gather her that was driven out,' Micah iv. 6, and make up ' his jewels/ Mai. iii. 17, that seemed to be carelessly scattered and lost.
Ohs. 6. God's own people may be dispersed, and driven from their countries and habitations. God hath his outcasts : he saith to Moab, ' Pity my outcasts,' Isa. xvi. 4. And the church complains, ' Our in- heritance is turned to strangers,' Lam. v. 2. Christ himself had not where to lay his head ; and the apostle tells us of some ' of whom the world was not worthy,' that ' they wandered in deserts, and mountains, and woods, and caves.' Mark, they ■wandered in the woods (it is Chrysostom's note) , aXka koX ixel oWe? e^evyov — l the retirement and privacy of the wilderness did not yield them a quiet and safe abode. So in Acts viii. 4, we read of the primitive believers, that ' they were scattered abroad everywhere.' Many of the children of God in these times have been driven from their dwellings ; but you see we have no reason to think the case strange.