1. Nothing maketh room for Satan more than wrath : Eph. iv. 26, 27, ' Be angry and sin not ;' and it followeth, ' Give not place to the devil ; ' as if the apostle had said, If you give place to wrath, you will give place to Satan, who will further and further close with you. When passions are neglected they are ripened into habits, and then the devil hath a kind of right in us. The world is full of the tragical effects of anger, and therefore, when it is harboured and entertained, you do not know what may be the issue of it.
2. It much woundeth your own peace. When the apostle had spoken of the sad effects of anger, he added, Eph. iv. 30, ' And grieve not the Holy Spirit, by which you are sealed to the day of redemption.' The Spirit cannot endure an unquiet mansion and habitation : wrath- ful and froward spirits usually want their seal, that peace and establish- ment which others enjoy ; for the violences of anger do not only dis- compose reason, but disturb conscience. The Holy Ghost loveth a sedate and meek spirit ; the clamoar and tumult of passion frighteth him from us, and it is but just with God to let them want peace of conscience that make so little conscience of peace.
3. It disparageth Christianity : the glory of our religion lieth in the power that it hath to sanctify and meeken the spirit. Now when men that profess Christ break out into such rude and indiscreet excesses, they stain their profession, and debase faith beneath the rate of reason, as if morality could better cure the irregularities of nature than re- ligion. Heathens are famous for their patience under injuries, dis- covered not only in their sayings and rules for the bridling of passion, but in their practice. Many of their sayings were very strict and exact ; for, by the progressive inferences of reason, they fancied rules of perfection, but indeed looked upon them as calculated for talk, rather than practice. But when I find them in their lives passing by offences with a meek spirit, without any disturbance and purposes of revengeful returns, I cannot but wonder, and be ashamed that I have less command and rule of my own spirit than they had, having so much advantage of rule and motive above them. As when I read that Lycurgus ^ had one of his eyes struck out by an insolent young man,
1 Plutarch, in Vita Lj-curgi.
144 AN EXrOSITlON, WITU NOTES, [JaS. I. '20.
and yet used much lenity and love to the ])arty that did it, how can I choose but blush at those eager prosecutions that are in my own spirit upon every light distaste, that I must have limb tor limb, tooth for tooth, and cannot be quiet till I have returned reviling for revil- ing? &c. Certainly I cannt>t dishonour the law of Christ more than to do less than they diil by the law of nature.
Ver. 21. Wherefore kuj apart all JiUhincss and superfluity of naugh- tiness, and receive icitk meekness the ingrafted icord, tvhich is able to save your souls.
The apostle having formerly spoken of the ])0wer of the word, and from thence inferred that it should be heard wiUiugly, and without a cavilling or contradicting spirit, and to that purpose liaviug shown the evil of wrath, he again enforceth the main exhortation of laying aside all wrathful and exulcerated atiections, that they might be titter to entertain the word witli an honest and meek heart, for their comfort and salvation. There is in tlie verse a duty, and that is, ' receiving of the word;' the help to it, and that is, ' laying aside' evil frames of spirit. Then there is the manner how this dnly is to be performed, ' with meekness ;' then the next end, and that is ' ingrafting the word ;' then the last end, which is propounded by way of motive, ' which is able to save your souls.'
^yherefore, that is, because wrath is such an hindrance to the right- eousness which God requireth ; or it may be referred to the whole context, upon all these considerations.
Lay apart, airodefievoi. — The force of the word implieth we should put it off as an unclean rag or worn garment : the same metaphor is used by the apostle Paul : Eph. iv. 22, ' That ye put ofi" the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts ;' and Col. iii. 8, in a very liice case, ' But now put oif these, anger, malice, wrath, blasphemy, filthy communication.
All fdthiness, iraaav pvirapiav. — The word is sometimes put for the filthiness of ulcers, and for the nastiness and tilth of the body through sweating, and is here put to stir up the greater abomination against sin, which is elsewhere called * the filth of the flesh,' 1 Peter iii. 21. Some suppose the apostle intendeth those lusts which are most beastly, and have greatest turpitude in them ; but either tlie sense must be more general to imply all sin, or more particularly restrained to filthy and evil speaking, or else it will not so well suit with the context.
And, superfluity of TULughtiness, ttjp vepia-a-eiap KaKia<;. — It may be rendered ' the ovei:flowing of malice;' and so it noteth scoflfs, and railings, and evil speakings, which are the su})ertluity of that in which everytliing is superfluous ; and these are specified in a parallel place of the apostle Peter, 1 Peter ii. 1, to which James might allude, writ- ing after him. Beza rendereth it ' the excrement of wickedness.' Some make it an allusion to the garbage of the sacrifices in the brook Kedron. Most take it generally for that abundance of evil and filthi- ue.ss that is in the heart of man.