' Arist. Khet. in Pass. od.
148 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I, 21.
I see not, teach tliou me ; if I have done iniquity, I will do so no more.'
Obs.5. From that word JiWnness. Sin is filtliiness ; it sullieth the glory and beauty of the soul, defaceth the image of God. This expression is often used, ' Filtliiness of flesh and spirit,' 2 Cor. vii. 1, where not only gross wickedness, such as proceedeth from fleshly and brutish lusts, is called filtliiness, but such as is more spiritual, unbelief, heresy, or misbelief, &c., nay, original corruption is called so : Job xiv. 4, ' Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? ' so Job XV. 14, ' How can man be clean?' Nay, things glorious in the eyes of men. Duties they are called dung, because of the iniquity that is found in them : j\Ial. ii. 3, ' I will si)read dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts.' iSo it was in God's eyes. The Spirit of God everywhere useth comparisons taken from things that are most odious, that our hearts may be wrought into the greater detestation of sin. Certainly they are much mistaken that think sin an ornament, when the Spirit of God callcth it dung and excrement. But more especially I find three sins called filthiness in scripture : — (1.) Covetousness, because it debaseth the spirit of man, and maketh him stoop to such indecencies as are beneath humanity ; so it is said, ' filthy lucre,' 1 Peter v. 2. (2.) Lust, which in scripture dialect is called filthiness, or the sin of uncleanness, 1 Thes. iv. 7, because it maketh a man to subject or submit his desires to the beasts' happines.s, which is sensual pleasures. (3.) In this place, anger and malice is called filthiness. We please ourselves in it, but it is but filthiness ; it is brutish to yield to our rage and the turbulent agitation of our spirits, and not to be able to withstand a provocation ; it is worse than poison in toads or asps, or what may be conceived to be most filthy in the creatures ; poison in tjiera doth hurt others, it cannot hurt lheni.selves ; anger may not hurt others, it cannot choose but hurt us. Well, then, all that hath been said is an engagement to us to resist sin, to detest it as a defilement ; it will darken the glory of our natures. There are some ' spots that are not as the spots of God's children,' Deut. xxxii. o. Oh ! let us get rid of these ' filthy garments,' Zech. iii. 4-G, and desire change of raiment, the righteousness of Christ. Ay ! but there arc some lesser sins that are spots too : ' The garment spotted by tlie tlesh,' Jude 23 ; unseemly words are called 'filthiness,' Eph. v. 4, and duties ' dung.'
Oh-s. ('}. Y\i)\\\ i\\ixi .siq}erjluily of ickl'cdnrss. That there is abun- dance of wickedness to be i)urged out of the heart of man. Such a ful- ness as runneth over, a deluge of sin : Gen. vi. 5, 'All the imagina- tions of the heart are evil, only evil, and that continually ; ' it runneth out into every thought, into every desire, into every purpose. As there is saltness in every droj> of the sea, and bitterness in every branch of wormwood, so sin in everything that is framed within the soul. W^hatever an unclean ])erson touched, though it were holy fiesh, it was unclean ; so all our actions are jjoisoned with it. Dan. ix. 27, we read of ' the overspreading of abominalions ;' and David saitli, Ps. xiv., ' They are all become vile, and gone out of the way ; ' all, and all over. In the understanding there are filthy thoughts and purpo.ses ; there sin beginneth: fish stink iir.st at the head. In the
JaS. 1. 21.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 149
will filthy motions ; the affections mingle with filthy ohjects. The memory, that should be like the ark, the chest of the law, retaineth, like the grate of a sink, nothino- but mud and filthiness. The con- science is defiled and stained with the impurities of our lives ; the members are but instruments of filthiness. A rolling eye provoketh a wanton fancy, and stirretli up unclean glances : 2 Peter ii. 14, * Having eyes full of adultery ; ' in the original, /xoi;^aXt8o<?, ' ftdl of the adulteress.' The tongue bewrayeth the rottenness of the heart in filthy speaking. Oh ! what cause we have to bless God that there is 'a fountain opened for uncleanness,' Zech. xiii. 1. Certainly conver- sion is not an easy work, there is such a mass of corruption to be laid aside.
Obs. 7. From that receive. Our duty in hearing the word is to receive it. See places in the exposition. In the word there is the hand of God's bounty, reaching out comfort and counsel to us ; and there must be the hand of faith to receive it. In receiving there is an act of the understanding, in apprehending the truth and musing upon it. So Christ saith, Luke ix, 44, ' Let these sayings sink down into your minds.' Let them not float in the fancy, but enter upon the heart, as Solomon speaketh of wisdom's entei'ing into the heart, Prov. ii. 10. And there is an act of faith, the crediting and believing faculty is stirred up to entertain it. So the apostle saith, ' mingled w^ith faith in the hearing,' Heb. iv. 2, that is, mingled with our heart, or closely applied to our hearts. And there is an act of the will and affections to embrace and lodge it in the soul, Avhich is called somewhere ' a receiving the truth in love,' when w-e make room for it, that carnal affections and prejudices may not vomit and throw it up again. Christ complaineth somewhere that ' his word had no place in them,' ov X'^P^^ €%et iv v/jllv, it cannot find any room, or be safely lodged in you ; but, like a hot morsel or queasy bit, it was soon given up again.