1. When we blame his providence, the state of things, the times, the persons about us, the circumstances of providence, as the laying of tempting objects in our way, our condition, &c., as if God's disposing of our interests were a calling us to sin : thus Adam, Gen. iii. 12, ' The woman which thou gavest me, she gave me, and I did cat.' Mark, it is obliquely reflected upon God, ' The woman which iJtou gavest me.' So many will plead the gi-eatness of their distractions and incum- brances. God hath laid so many miseries and discouragements upon them, and cast them upon such hard times, that they are forced to such shifts, whereas, alas! God sendeth us miseries, not to make us worse, but to make us better, as Paul seemeth to argue in 1 Cor. x. 13. 14 : if they did turn to idolatry, the fault was not in their sufferings and trials, but in themselves. Thus you make God to tempt you to sin when you transfer it upon providence, and blame 3'our condition rather than yourselves. Providence may dispose of the object, but it doth not impel or excite the lust ; it appointclh the condition, but
JaS. I. 13.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. S3
Satan settetli up the snare. It was by God's provitlence that tlie Avedi^e of gold lay in Achan's way, that Bathsheba was offered naked to David's eye, that the sensual man hath abundance, that the timo- rous is surprised with persecution, &c. All these things are from God, for the fault lieth not here. The outward estate, or the creatures that have been the occasions of our sinning, cannot be blamed : as beauty in women, pleasantness in wine. These are good creatures of God, meant for a remedy ; we turn them into a snare. The more of God's goodness or glory is seen in any creature, the greater check it is to a temptation, for so far it is a memorial of God; and therefore some have observed that desires simply unclean are most usually stirred up towards deformed objects. Beauty in itself is some stricture and resemblance of the divine majesty and glory, and therefore cannot but check motions altogether brutish. It is very observable that of the apostle Peter : 2 Pet. i. 4, ' The corruption that is in the world through lust.' The world is only the object; the cause is lust. The reason why men are covetous, or sensual, or effeminate, is not in gold, or wine, or women, but in men's naughty affections and dispositions. So also it is very observable, that when the apostle Jolm would sum up the contents of that world which is opposite to the love of God, he doth not name the objects, but the lusts ; the fault is there. He doth not say. Whatsoever is in the world is pleasures, or honours, or profits, but ' the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life,' and addeth, ' These are not of the Father, but of the world,' 1 John ii. 16 ; that is, not of God, as riches, and honour, and other outward things are, but these ai'e parts of that world that man hath made, the world in our own bowels, as the poison is not in the flower, but in the spider's nature.
2. By ascribing sin to the defect and faint operation of the divine grace. Men will say they could do no otherwise ; they had no more grace given them by God : Prov. xix. 3, ' The foolishness of man perverteth his ways, and his heart fretteth against the Lord.' They say it was long of God ; he did not give more grace. They ' corrupt themselves in what they know,' Jude 10, and then complain, God gave no power. Men naturally look upon God as a Pharaoh, requiring brick where he gave no straw. The servant in the Gospel would make his master in the fault why he did not improve his talent: Mat. XXV. 24, ' I knew thou wert an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed, and there- fore I went and hid the talent ; ' as if that were all the cause.
3. When men lay all their miscarriages upon their fate, and the unhappy stars that shone at their birth, these are but blind flings at God himself, veiled under reflections upon the creature. Alas ! ' who is it that bringeth out Mazzaroth in his season, that ordereth the stars in their course ? is it not the Lord ? ' To this sort you may refer them that storm at any creatures, because they dare not openly and clearly oppose themselves against heaven ; as Job curseth the day of his birth, Job iii. 3, as if it had been unlucky to him ; and others curse some lower instruments.
4. When men are angry they know not why. They are loath to spend any holy indignation upon themselves; therefore, feeling the
86 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 13.
stings and gi'ipes of conscience, they fret and fume, and know not wliy. They would fain break out against God, but dare not ; as David himself, 2 Sam. vi. 8, ' David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah.' He was angry, but could not tell with whom to be angry ; he should have been angry with his own folly and ignorance. Wicked men break out apjiarently: Isa. viii. 21, 22, ' They shall fret themselves, and curse their God, and their king, and look upward ; and they shall look to the earth,' &c. Sin proving unhappy, vexeth the soul ; and then men curse and rave, and break out into indecencies of passion and madness, accusing God, and providence, and instruments, and any but themselves. So. Kev, xvi. 21, 'They blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their plagues ; ' the madness of their rage breaketh out into open blas- phemy. But in the children of God it is more secretly carried ; there is a storming in their hearts, but they dare not give it vent ; as in Jonah, chap, iv., he was vexed, and surcharged with passion, but knew not upon whom to disgorge it.