* Whosoever cometh to me,' &c. They may approve of the good way, and applaud it : ' Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that gave thee suck,' &c., Luke xi. 27, 28. They may hold out a great deal of glavering and false affection : Luke vi. 46, ' Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? ' They may be en- dowed with church gifts of prophecy and miracles, be able to talk and discourse savourily of the things of God, do much for the edification of others : ' Many will say to me in that day,' &c.. Mat. vii. 22. They may have a vain persuasion of their ftiith and interest in Christ : they will say, ' Lord, Lord,' Mat. vii. 21. They may make some progress in obedience, abstain from grosser sins, and things publicly odious :
* Herod did many things,' Mark vi. ; and Christ saith, ' Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit,' &c.. Mat. vii. 19. There must be some- thing positive. There may be some external conformity ; ay ! but there is no effectual change made ; ' the tree is not good,' Mat. vii, 18. Well, therefore, outward duties with partial reformation will not serve the turn. (3.) Consider the easiness of deceit : Jer. xvii. 9, ' The heart of man is deceitful above all things ; who can find it out ? ' Who can trace and unravel the mystery of iniquity that is in the soul ? Since we lost our uprightness we have many inventions, Eccles. vii. 29, shifts and wiles whereby to avoid the stroke of conscience : they are called, Prov. xx, 27, ' the depths of the belly.' Look, as in the belly the inwards are folded, and rolled up within one another, so are there turnings and crafty devices in the heart of man.
Ver. 23, 24, For if any he a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like to a man beholding his natural face in a glass ■• for he he- holdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth luhat manner of man he ivas.
Here James amplifieth the former reason, which was taken from the vanity and unprofitableness of bare hearing, by a similitude taken from a man looking in a glass.
JaS. I. 23, 24.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 159
If any he a hearer of the luord and not a doer ; that is, contenteth himself with bare hearing, or bare knowing the word of God, and doth not come away with impulses of zeal, and resolutions of obedience.
Is like a man : — In the original it is dv8pl, a word proper to the masculine sex, and therefore some frame a criticism. The apostle doth not say, ' like a woman ;' they are more diligent and curious. They view themselves again and again, that they may do away every spot and deformity. But this is more witty than solid. The apostle useth dv7]p promiscuously for man and woman, as ver. 12, ' Blessed is the man that endureth temptation,' the man or woman : only the masculine sex is specified, as most worthy.
That heholdeth his natm-al face, to Trpoo-wirov rrj<i ryeviaeco^;, ' the face of his nativity.' — What is intended by that ? Some say, the face as God miade it at its birth, that he may behold God's work in it, and so take occasion to condemn painting, and the artificial cerusse and varnish of the face ; or his natural face, upon which men bestow least care. In painting, there is more exactness : or natural face, as import- ing a glance, as a man passeth by a glass, and seeth that he hath the face of a man, not exactly surveying the several lineaments. Others think the apostle hinteth the thing intended by the similitude — our natural and original deformity — represented in the words, and that he complicateth and foldeth up the thing signified with the expressions of the similitude ; but that seemeth forced. I suppose, by ' natural face,' he meaneth his own face, the glass representing the very face which nature gave him.
He goeth his loay, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he luas. — He forgetteth the fashion of his countenance, the spots re- presented therein, and so fitly noteth those weak impressions which the discoveries of the word leave upon a careless soul, who, after his deformity is represented, is not affected with it so as to be brought to repentance.
The notes are these : —
Obs. 1. That the word of God is a glass. But what doth it show us ? I answer — (1.) God and Christ : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' We all with an open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory,' A glass implieth the clear- est representation that we are capable of here upon earth. I confess a glass is sometimes put for a dark vision ; as 1 Cor. xiii. 12, ' Now we see but as in a glass, darkly ; but then we shall see face to face.' Then we shall see God himself : 1 John iii. 2, ' We shall see God as he is.' But here we have his image and reflection in the word : as sometimes the ' heart of flesh' is put for an earthly mind, sometimes for a tender heart. In opposition to ' a heart of stone,' the ' heart of flesh' is taken in a good sense ; but, in opposition to pure and sublime affections, in a bad sense. So, in opposition to the shadows of the law, seeing in a glass importeth a clear discerning ; but in opposition to ' face to face,' but a low and weak conception of the essence of God. Oh ! study the glory of God in the word. Though you cannot exhaust and draw out all the divine perfections in your thoughts, yet ' your ear may receive a little thereof,' Job iv. 11. When we want the sun, we do not despise a candle. (2.) Tlii3 word is a glass to show us our-