154 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 22.
Prov. ii. 10, and serveth to better the life ; like children in tlic rickets, that have big heads but weak joints : this is the disease of this age. There is a great deal of curious knowledge, airy notions, but practical saving truths are antiquated and out of date. Seneca observed of the philosophers, that when they grew more learned they were less moral. ^ And generally we find now a great decay of zeal, with the growth of notion and knowledge, as if the waters of the sanctuary had put out the fire of the sanctuary, and men could not be at the same time learned and holy. Others hear that they may say they have hoard ; conscience would not be pacified without some worship : ' They come as my people use to do,' Ezek. xxxiii. 31 ; that is, according to the fasliion of the age. Duties by many are used as a sleepy sop to allay the rage of conscience.
The true use of ordinances is to come that we may profit. Usually men speed according to their aim and expectation : ' Desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby,' 1 Peter ii. 2, So David professeth his aim, Ps. cxix. 11, ' Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.' The mind, like the ark, should be the chest of the law, that we may know what to do in every case, and that truths may be always present Avith us, as Christians find it a great advantage to have truths ready and present, to talk with them upon all occasions, Prov. vi. 21, 22. Oh! it is sweet when we and our reins can confer together, Ps. xvi. 7.
If you cannot find present profit in what you hear, consider how it may be useful Jor you to the future. Things I confess are not so acceptable when they do not reach the present case ; but they have their season, and if come to you, you may bless God that ever you were acquainted with them : Isa. xlii. 23, ' Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?' You may be under terrors, and under miseries, and then one of these truths will be exceeding refreshing ; or you may be liable to such or such snares when you come to be engaged in the world, or versed in such employments, therefore treasure up every truth of God : provision argueth wisdom ; it may concern you in time. Jer. x. 11, the prophet teacheth them how they should defend their religion in Babylon; therefore that sentence is in Chaldee, that he might })ut words in their mouths, against they came to con- verse with the Clialdeans : ' Thus shall ye say to them, The gods that made not the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth." It is good to provide for Babylon whiles we are in Sion, and not to reject truths as not pertinent to our case, but to reserve them for future use and profit.
Ohs. 3. From that 7rapa\oyil^o/j,6vot,. Do not cheat yourselves with a fallacy or false argument. Observe, that self-deceit is founded in some false argumentation or reasoning. Conscience su])plieih three offices — of a rule, a witness, and a judge ; and so accordingly the act of conscience is threefold. There is (rvvTr)pT]cn<;, or a right api)rchen- sion of the prinei|)les of religion ; so conscience is a rule : there is a-vveiOTjfTii;, a sense of our actions compared with the rule or known will of God, or a testimony concerning the proi)ortion or disproixtrtion that our actions bear with the word : then, lastly, there is Kpiai^, or
' ' Coui ease desierunt simul ac docti cvaBcriut.' — Seneca.
JaS. I. 22.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 1.55
judgment, by which a man applieth to himself those rules of Chris- tianity which concern his fact or state. All these acts of conscience may be reduced into a syllogism or argument. As for instance : he that is wholly carnal hath no interest in Christ ; there is the first act, knowledge : but I am wholly carnal ; there is the second act, con- science : therefore I have no interest in Christ ; there is the third act, judgment. The first act of conscience niaketh the proposition, the second the assumption, the third the conclusion. Now all self-deceit is in one of these propositions. Sometimes conscience is out as a law in the very principles ; sometimes as a witness in the assumption ; some- times as a judge it suspendeth and hideth the conclusion. Sometimes, I say, it failetb as a law, by making an erroneous principle to be the bottom of a strong hope ; as here, the principle is naught : ' They that hear the word shall be saved.' At other times it erreth in the appli- cation of the rule ; as 1 John i. 6, ' If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth ;' so 1 John ii. 4. The principle was right, ' They that have communion with God are happy ;' but ' We have communion with Grod,' that was false, because they walked in darkness. So as a judge it doth not pass sen- tence, but out of self-love forbeareth to judge of the quality of the action or state, that the soul. may not be affrightened with the danger of it. You see the deceit ; how shall we help it ? I answer severally to all these acts and parts of conscience : —