Obs. 5. Lastly, That no enduring is acceptable to God but such as doth arise from love. The crown which God hath promised, he doth not say, ' to them that suffer,' but ' to them that love him.' A man may suffer for Christ, that is, in his cause, without any love to him, but it is nothing worth : 1 Cor. xiii. 3, ' If I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.' Through natural stoutness and stubbornness men may be constant in their way, and, as I said before, yield a stout body to a stubborn mind ; and yet, when they are burning in the fires, their souls burn with no zeal or love to God's glory. There are many who would die for Christ if they were put to it, yet will not quit a lust for him. Vicious persons that die in a good cause are but like a dog's head cut off for sacri- fice. Well, then, do not think that mere suffering will excuse a wicked life. It is observable that Christ saith last of all, ' Blessed are they that suffer for righteousness' sake,' Mat. v. 10, as intimating that a martyr must have all the preceding graces ; first, ' Blessed are the poor in spirit ; blessed are the pure in heart ; ' then, ' Blessed are they that suffer.' First, grace is required, and then martyrdom. The victory is less over outward inconveniences than inward lusts ; for these, being more rooted in our nature, are more hardly overcome. Under the law the priests were to search the beasts brought for burnt- offerings, whether scabbed or mangy, &c. A burnt-offering, if scabby, is not acceptable to God. In short, that love that Iceepeth the commandments is best able to make us suffer for them. Philo- sophy may teach us to endure hardships, as Calanus in Cui'tius willingly offered his body to the fires ; but grace only can teach us to oveicome lusts. We read of many that, out of greatness or sullen- ness of spirit, could offer violence to nature, but were at a loss when they came to deal with a corruption ; so ea.sy is it to cut off a member rather tlian a lust, and to withstand an enemy rather than a tempta- tion ! Therefore tlie scri])tures, when they set out an outward enemy, though never so fierce, call \\\m flesh, ' with them is an arm of flesh ; '
1 ' Promittendo se debitorem fecit.' — Aug. VOL. IV. F
82 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 13.
but ^Yllen they speak of the spiritual combat, they make it a higher work, and of another nature: 'We fight not against flesh and blood,' &c., Eph. vi. 12. Learn then to do for God, that you may the better die for him ; for a wicked man, as he profaneth his actions, ^0 his sufferings — his blood is but as swine's blood, a defilement to the altar.
Other notes might be observed out of this verse, but they may be collected either out of the exposition, or supplied out of observations, on chap. ii. ver. 5, where suitable matter is discussed.
Ver. 13. Let no man say, lolien he is tempted, I am tempted of God ; for God cannot he tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
He Cometh now to another kind of temptations ; for having spoken of outward trials, he taketh occasion to speak of these inward tempta- tions, that thereby he might remove a blasphemous error concerning the cause of them. It is clear that those outward trials are from God, but these inward trials, or temptations to sin, are altogether incon- sistent with the purity and holiness of his nature, as the apostle proveth in this and the following verses.
Let no man, tchen he is tempted, //.T^SetV Tretpa^o/juevo^ — that is, tempted to sin, for in this sense is the word used in scripture ; as Bofa/j.u^€tv, or trial, is the proper word for the other temptation, so ireipd^eiv is the proper word for temptations to sin ; thus the devil is called 6 irecpd^cov, the tempter, Mat. iv. 3 ; and in the Lord's Prayer we ])ray that we may not be led ei? TreLpaa/ibv, ' into temptation,' chiefly intending that we may not be cast upon solicitations to evil ; so here, when he is tempted, that is, so solicited to sin that he is overcome by it.
Saij ; that is, either in word or thought, for a thought is verhum mentis, the saying of the heart ; and some that dare not lisp out such a blasphemy certainly dare imagine it ; for the apostle implies that the creature is apt to say, to have some excuse or other.
/ am tempted of God ; that is, it was he solicited, or enforced me to evil ; or, if he would not have me sin, why would not he hinder me?
For God cannot be tempted roith evil. — Here is the reason, drawn from the unchangeable holiness of God : he cannot any way bo seduced and tempted into evil. Some read it actively, he is not tlie tempter of evil ; but this would confound it with the last clause ; some, as Sal- meron, out of Clemens Romanus,^ render the sense thus : God is not the tempter of evil persons, but only of the good, by afflictions ; but that is a nicety which will not hold true in all cases, and doth not agree with the original phnise; for it is not to)v KaKOiv, as referring it to evil persons, but sim])Iy without an article, KaKwv, as referring it to evil things. The sum is, (iud cannot, by any external a[)plications, or ill motions from within, be drawn aside to that which is unjust.