Ohs. 4. Lastly, again, from that iv Tai<i iropeiaL'i, from his ways or journeys. All our endeavours will be fruitless if God's hand be against us. As the flower to the burning heat, so is the rich man in
74 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 12.
his waj's ; that is, notwithstanding all his industry and care, God may soon blast him : they ' earned wages, but put it in a bag with holes,* Hag. i. 6 ; that is, their gains did not thrive with them. Peter ' toiled all night but caught nothing,' till he took Christ into the boat, Luke V. 5. So you will catch nothing, nothing with comfort and profit, till you take God along with you : Ps. cxxvii. 2, ' It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows : for so he givetli his beloved sleep.' Some take this place in a more particular and restrained sense ; as if David would intimate that all their agita- tions to oppose the reign of Solomon, though backed with much care and industry, should be fruitless; though Absalom and Adonijah were tortured with the care of their own ambitious designs, yet God would give Jodidiah, or his beloved, rest ; that is, the kingdom should quietly and safely be devolved upon Solomon, who took no such pains to court the people, and to raise himself up into their esteem as Absa- lom and Adonijah did ; and they ground this exposition partly on the title of the psalm, ' a psalm for Solomon,' partly on the name of Solo- mon, who was called Jedidijah, or the beloved of the Lord, 2 Sam. xii. 24, 25, the word used here, ' he giveth his beloved rest.' But I suppose this sense is too curious ; for though the psalm be entitled to Solomon, yet I think not so much by way of prophecy as direction : for as the 72d Psalm (which also beareth title for Solomon) repre- senteth to him the model of a kingdom and the affairs thereof, so this psalm, the model of a family, with the incident cares and blessings of it ; and therefore the passages of it are of a more universal and un- limited concernment than to be appropriated to Solomon ; and it is not to be neglected that the Septuagint turn the Hebrew word plurally, roL<; dyaTTTjTol'i avTou vttvov, ' his beloved ones sleep,' showing that the sentence is general. The meaning is, then, that though worldly men fare never so hardly, beat their brains, tire their spirits, rack their consciences, yet many times all is for nothing ; either God doth not give them an estate, or not the comfort of it. But his beloved, with- out any of these racking cares, enjoy contentment: if they have not the world, they have sleep and rest ; with silence submitting to the will of God, and with quietness Vv^aiting for the blessing of God. Well, then, acknowledge the providence that you may come under the bless- ing of it ; labour loithout God cannot prosper ; against God and against his will in his word, will surely miscarry.
Ver. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath pro- mised to them that love him.
Here the apostle concludeth all the former discourse with a general s(?ntence. I shall despatch it very briefly, because the matter of it often occurreth in this epistle.
Blessed ; that is, already blessed. They are not miserable, as the world judgeth them : it is a Cliristian paradox, wherein there is an allusion to what is said. Job v. 17, * Behold, hajjpy is the man whom God correcteth ; ' it is a wonder, and therefore he calleth the world to see it — Behold ! So the apostle, in an opposition to the judgment of the world, saith. Blessed.
Is the man, dvrjp. — The word used is only proper to the masculine
JaS. I. 12.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 75
sex, and therefore some ^ have forced and obtruded some misshapen conceits upon this scripture ; whereas throughout the epistle we shall observe our apostle delighteth in the use of this word for both sexes ; as ver. 23, dvSpc 7rapaKvy\ravTc, ' A man beholding his face,' &c., in- tending a man or woman, for it answereth to the Hebrew word zsch, under which the woman also was comprehended.
Thai enduretli, o? vTro/xevei — that is, that patiently and constantly beareth. A wicked man suffereth, but he doth not endure: they suffer, but unwillingly, with murmuring and blasphemy ; but the godly man endureth ; that is, beareth the afHiction with patience and constancy ; without murmuring, fainting, or blaspheming. Enduring is taken in a good sense ; as Heb. xii. 7, ' If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons.' God is not perceived to deal as a father, but when the affliction is patiently borne, which the apostle calleth enduring there.
Temptation. — Affliction is so called, as before ; in itself it is a pun- ishment of sin, but to the godly but a trial ; as death, the king of terrors, or highest of afflictions, is in itself the wages of sin, but to them, the gate of eternal life.