160 AN EXPOSITION. WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 23, 24.
selves ; it discovereth the liiddeii things of the lieart, all the deformi- ties of the soul : Mark iv. 22, ' There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest.' The word discovereth all things. Our sins are the spots which the law discovereth ; Christ's blood is the water to wash them off, and that is discovered in the gospel. i The law dis- covereth sins: Rom. vii. 9, 'I was alive without the law, but when the commandment cnme, sin revived, and I died.' We think ourselves well and in a good case, till the law falleth upon the spirit with full conviction, and then we see all the spots and freckles of our souls. The gospel discovereth how Ave may do away our sins, and deck and attire our souls with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Use. It ministereth a meditation to you. When you are at your glass, consider the word of God is a glass : I must look after the estate and complexion of my soul. Take but a part of the law and exercise yourself with it every day, and you will soon see the deformity of your own spirit : do not look in a flattering glass. We love a picture that is like us, rather than that which is flourished and varnished with more art.
Ohs. 2. That the knowledge of formal professors is but slight and glancing : like a man beholding his face in a glass, or like the glaring of a sunl)eam upon a wave, it rusheth into the thoughts, and it is gone. The beast under the law that did not chew the cud was unclean. There is much in meditation and a constant light. Some men, if they should be considerate, would undo all their false hopes ; therefore, usually, carnal men's thoughts are but slight and trivial ; they know things, but are loath to let their thoughts pause upon them : Luke ii., it is said, ' Mary pondered all these sayings.' A slippery, vain, incon- sistent mind will be hardly held to truths. When we apprehend a thing, curiosity being satisfied, we begin to loathe it ; and, therefore, it is an hard matter to agitate the thoughts again to that point to which they have once arrived ; the first apprehension doth, as it were, deflower it.
Ohs. 3. Vain men go from the ordinances just as they came to them : he bcholdeth, and goeth away. Like the beasts in Noah's ark, they went in unclean, and came out unclean. So many come un- humbled and unraortified, and so they go away. Oh ! let it never be said of you.
Ohs. 4. Slight apprehensions make a very weak impression : things work when the thoughts are serious and ponderous : musing maketli the fire burn, Ps. xxxix. 3. When God's arrows stick fast, they make us roar to the purpose, Job vi. 4. And David, when he would express his deep affection, he saith, Ps. li. 3, ' My sin is ever before me:' it would not out of his thoughts. Well, then, a weak impres- sion is an argument of a slight apprehension : thoughts always follow affection. They that 'heal their wounds slightly,' Jer. vi. 14, show that they were never soundly touched and pricked at heart. Men thoroughly affected say — 1 shall remember such a sermon all my life- time. David saith, Ps. cxix. 93, ' I will never forget thy precepts ; for by them thou hast (piickened me.' Others let good things slip, because they never felt the power of them.
1 '^Maculae sunt peccata qu» ostendit lex ; aqua est sanguis Christ! qucin ostendit evangelium.'
JaS. I. 25.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 161
Ver. 25. But ivJioso looheth into the 2^erfect laiv of liberty, and conthiueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the luork, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
In this verse you have the third reason wliy they should hear the word so as to practise it. The first was, they woukl but deceive themselves, and go away with a vain mistake. The next, that bare hearing would be of little benefit ; no more than for a man to glance his eye upon a glass, and to have a slight view of liis countenance. And now, because due and right hearing will end in blessedness. This verse is full of matter. I shall drop it out as the order of the words yieldeth it.
But lohoso looheth, 6 he irapaKvy^a'i : a metaphor taken from those that do not only glance upon a thing, but bend their body towards it, that they may pierce it with their eyes, and narrowly pry into it. The same word is used for the stooping down of the disciples to look into Christ's sepulchre, Luke xxiv. 12, and John xx. 4, 5, and that narrow search which the angels use to find out the mysteries of sal- vation : 1 Peter i. 12, ' Which things the angels desire to look into ; ' where there is a plain allusion to the cherubim whose faces were bowed down towards the ark, as desirous to see the mysteries therein contained. The word implieth three things : — (1.) Deepness of meditation. He doth not glance upon, but ' look into the perfect law of liberty.' (2.) Diligence of inquiry ; they do not content themselves with what is ofi'ered to their first thoughts, but accurately pry into the mind of God revealed in the word. (3.) Liveliness of impression : they do so look upon it as to find the virtue of it in their hearts : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' We, Avith open face beholding the glory of the Lord as in a glass, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.' Such a gaze as bringeth the glory of the Lord into our hearts, as Moses' face shone by talking with God ; and we, by conversing with the word, carry away the beauty and glory of it in our spirits.