1. That though the things of the world are specious, yet they should not allure us, because they are fading. Flowers are sweet, and affect the eye, but their beauty is soon scorched : the soul is for an eternal good, that it may have a happiness suitable to its own dura- tion. An immortal soul cannot have full contentment in that which is fading ; but this is a point that calleth for meditation rather than demonstration. It is easy to declaim upon the vanity of the creature : it is every man's object and every man's subject. Oh! but think of it seriously, and desire God to be in your thoughts. When the creatures tempt you, be not enticed by the beauty of them, so as to forget their vanity. Say, Here is a flower, glorious, but fading ; glass that is bright, but brittle.
2. The fairest things are most fading. Creatures, when they come to their excellency, then they decay, as herbs, when they come to flower, they begin to wither ; or, as the sun when it cometh to the zenith, then it declineth : Ps. xxxix. 5, ' Man at his best estate is altogether vanity ; ' not at his worst only, when the feebleness and inconveniences of old age have surprised him. Many, you know, are blasted and cut off in their flower, and wither as soon as they begin to flourish. Paul had a messenger of Satan presently upon his ecstasy, 2 Cor. xii. 7. So the prophet speaketh of ' a grasshopper in the begin- ning of the shooting up of the latter growth,' Amos vii. 1. As soon as the ground recovered any verdure and greenness, presently there came a grasshopper to devour the herbage : the meaning is, a new
JaS. I. 11.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 71
affliction as soon as they began to flourish. Well, then, suspect these outward things when you most abound in them. David thought of overthrows when God had given him a great victory, as Ps. Ix. Com- pare the psalm with the title. So it is good to think of famine and want in the midst of plenty : a man doth not know what overturn- ings there may be in the world. The woman that stood not in need of the prophet, 2 Kings iv. 13, ' I dwell among my own people,' that is, I have no need of friends at court, yet afterward stood in need of the prophet's man, 2 Kings viii. 5. The Lord knoweth how soon your condition may be turned ; when it seemeth to flourish most, it may be near a withering.
Ver. 11. For the sun is no sooner risen ivifh a burning heat, but it ivithereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth; so also shall the 7'ich man fade aioay in his ways.
He pursueth the similitude, and in the close of the verse applieth it. There is nothing needeth illustration but the latter clause.
So shall ; that is, so may ; for the passage is not absolutely defini- tive of what always shall be, but only declarative of what may be ; and, therefore, the future tense is used for the potential mood. We see, many times, that ' the wicked live, become old, and mighty in power ; their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them : their bull gendereth, and faileth not ; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf,' Job xxi. 7-10. Therefore, I say, the apostle showeth not what always cometh to pass, but what may be, and usually falleth out, and what at length certainly will be their portion.
The rich man. — That is either to be taken generally for the rich, whether godly or ungodly, or more especially for the ungodly person that trusteth in his riches.
Fade aioay fj.apavdijaeTac, a word proper to herbs when they lose their verdure and beauty.
In his ivays. — Some read, as Erasmus and Gagneus, eV iropiaa, ' with his abundance,' which reading Calvin also approveth, as suit- ing better with the context, ' So shall the rich and all his abundance fade away ; ' but the general and more received reading is that which we follow, eV Trope/ai? in his ways or journeys ; the word is emphatical, and importeth that earnest industry by which men compass sea and land, run hither and thither in the pursuit of wealth, and yet, when all is done, it fadeth like the flower of the grass.
The notes are these : —
Obs. 1 . From the continuance of the similitude, that the vanity of flowers should hint thoughts to us about the vanity of our own com- forts. We delight in pictures and emblems, for then the soul, by the help of fancy and imagination, hath a double view of the object ia the similitude, which is, as it were, a picture of it, and then the thing itself This was God's ancient way to teach his people by types ; still he teacheth us by similitudes taken from common and ordinary objects, that when we are cast upon them, spiritual thoughts may be awakened ; and so every ordinary object is, as it were, hallowed and consecrated to a heavenly purpose. Well, then, let this be your field or garden meditation ; when you see them decked with a great deal of bravery, remember all this is gone in an instant when the burning