Obs. 5. From that my beloved brethren. Gentle dealing will best become dissuasives from error. One saith, we must speak to kings, ^rjixaa-L /3ua(TLvoi<;, with silken Avords. Certainly we had need to use much tcndei-ness to persons that differ from us, speak to them in silken words. Where the matter is like to displease, the manner should not be bitter : pills must be sugared, that they may down the better : many a man hath been lost tlirough violence : you engage them to the other party. As Tertullian, when he had spoken favourably of the Montanists, by the violence of the priests of Kome he Avas forced into their fellowship.! Meekness may gain those that are not engaged. Men of another party will think all is spoken out of rage and anger against them ; it is good to give them as little cause as may be, especially if but inclim'ng through weakness to an error. Oh ! ' do not err, my beloved brethren.' I would to God we could learn this wis- dom in this age: 2 Tim. ii. 25, ' In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.' Others will brook sharpness better than they : every man that is of a contrary opinion thinketh that he hath the advantage ground of another, as being in the right; and pride is always touchy. Outward gross sins fill the soul with more shame, and upon conviction there is not that boldness of reply; for a man is so far under another as he may be reproved by him : but now iiere, where every man thinketh himself upon equal or higher terms, we had need deal the more meekly, lest i)ride take prejudice, and, out
' ' Prorsus in Moutani partes transivit.' — Pamcl. in Vita Tcrtul.
JaS. I. IT.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 109
of a distaste of the manner, snuff at the matter itseh" : but of this elsewhere.
Ver. 17. Every good gift and every 'perfect gift is from cdjove, and cometh down from the Father of licjhts, icith ivhom is no variable- ness, neither shadoio of turning.
He taketli occasion from the former matter, which was to sliow you that God was not the authoi' of sin, to show you that God is the author of all j^ood, especially the spiritual gifts and graces bestowed on us ; in which there is an argument secretly couched : the author of all good cannot be the author of evil. Xow ' every good and perfect gift ' is of God ; and because the argument should be the more strong by an allusion to the sun, he representeth God, in the latter part of the verse, as essentially and immutably good.
Every ' good gift. — The vulgar readeth ' the best gift,' projierly enough to the sense, but not to the original words. The gift is called good, either — (1.) To exclude those gifts of Satan which are indeed injurie.s rather than gifts: a blind mind, 2 Cor. iv. 4; unruly affec- tions, Eph. ii. 2. These gifts, that are from beneath, are not good. (2.) To note the kind of gifts which he speaketh of ; not common mercies, but good gifts, such as the apostle calleth elsewhere irvev/jba-tKa^ ev\oyLa<;, ' spiritual blessings,' Eph. i. 3. It is true all common gifts come from the divine bounty ; but the apo.stle intendeth here special blessings, as appeareth partly by the attributes ' good ' and ' perfect.' It is true some distinguish between the two clauses, making Soaa ujaOi], or ' good gift,' to imply earthly blessings, and B(opj]fjba reXeiov, ' perfect gift,' to imply heavenly or spiritual blessings ; but I sui)pose that is too curious. These two words imply the same mercies with a different respect, as by and by ; partly because such mercies suit with the context, look upon it forward or backward. In the foregoing verses he speaketh about God being the author of sin, and no argu- ment is so fit to batter down that conceit as that God is the author of special and saving grace ; and in the following verse he instanceth in regeneration, partly because those mercies are most clearly from God, and need little of the concurrence of second causes.
And every perfect gift; that is, such as do anyway conduce to our perfection, not only initial and first grace, but all the progresses in the spiritual life, and at last perfection and eternal life itself, are the gift of God. Though eternal death be a wages, yet eternal life is a gift ; and therefore the apostle diversifieth the phrase when he com- pareth them both together, Eom. vi. 23. The sum is, that not only the beginning, but all the gradual accesses from grace to glory, are by gift, and from the free mercy of God.
Is from above ; that is, from heaven. The same phrase is else- where used : John iii. 21, 'He that cometh from above is above all ; ' that is, from heaven. And heaven is put for God, as Luke xv. 21, ' I have sinned against heaven, and against thee ; ' that is, against God and his earthly father. And I suppose there is some special reason why our blessings are said to be from above, because they were designed there, and thither is their aim and tendency, and there are they perfectly enjoyed ; and therefore, Eph. i. 3, are we said to be 'blessed with spiritual blessings in heavenly places;' therefore 'in