Into the 'perfect law. — Some understand the moral law, in opposition to the ceremonial, as not being clear and full, and not able to justify, though men rested in the observances of it ; and not perfect, because not durable, and was not to remain for ever. Thus Heb. vii. 19, ' The law made nothing perfect, but only the bringing in of a better hope.' A man could not be sanctified, justified, saved, without Christ, by the dispensation of Moses. So Heb. ix. 9, ' That service could not make the comer thereunto perfect, as appertaining to the conscience.' The soul could find no ease and rest in it without looking to Christ. But though this sense be probable, yet I rather understand the whole doctrine and word of God, and chiefly the gospel. The will of God in scripture is called a law. So a godly man is said to ' meditate on the kw day and night,' Ps. i. ; and ' thy law do I love,' Ps. cxix., where by law is understood the whole word ; and the gospel is called w/xo? TTto-Tect)?, ' the law of faith,' Kom. iii. 27. Now this law is said to be perfect, because it is so formally in itself, and they that look into it will see that there needeth no other word to make the man of God perfect. Of liberty. — It is so called, partly because of the clearness of revelation : it is the counsel of God to his friends ; or, saitli Piscator, because it spareth none, but dealeth with all freely, without respect of
VOL. IV. ' L
1G2 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 25.
persons, thougli they be higher, richer, stronger tlian others ; but rather because it calleth us into a state of freedom. See other reasons in the notes.
And cant hmeth tlicrein ; that is, persevercth in the study of this holy doctrine, and remaineth in the knowledge, belief, and obedience of it.
He being not a forgetful hearer^ dKpoaTr)<; r?)? i7nX7)afjLovrj<;, ' a hearer of oblivion,' a Hebraism ; and he useth this term to answer the former similitude of a man's forgetting his natural face.
But a doer of the tuorJc ; that is, laboureth to refer and bring all things to practice. He is said to be a doer that studieth to do, though his hand doth not reach to the perfectness of the work ; that is, mind- ful of the business cut out to him in the word.
He shall he blessed in his deed ; that is, so behaving himself, or so doing ; or, as some more generally, he shall be blessed in all his ways, whatsoever he doth shall be prosperous and happy. For they conceive it to be an allusion to the words of the 1st Psalm, ver. 3, ' Whatsoever he shall do shall prosper : ' for the psalmist speaketh there of doing the law, and meditating in the law, as James speaketh here of looking into the law of liberty, and walking in it. But here the Papists come upon us, and say — Lo ! here is a clear place that avc are blessed for our deeds. But I answer — It is good to mark the distinct- ness of scripture phrase : the apostle doth not say for, but in his deed. It is an argument or evidence of our blessedness, though not the ground of it ; the way, though not the cause.
The points are these : —
Obs. 1. From that lie lookeili. Tliat we should with all serious- ness and earnestness apply ourselves to the knowledge of the gospel. There should be deep meditation and dihgent inquiry. Your first duty, Christians, is to admit the word into your serious thoughts : Ps. i. 2, ' He meditateth in the law day and night.' We should always be chewing and sucking out the sweetness of this cud : Ps. xlv. 1, 'My heart inditeth a good matter.' The word in the original signi- fieth baketli ov frieth ; it is an allusion to the mincah, or meat-offering, that was baked and fried in a pan. Truths are concocted and ripened by meditation. And then there must be diligent inquiry, that we may not content ourselves with the surface of trutli, but get into the bowels of it : 1 Peter i. 10, ' Of which salvation the prophets have inquired diligently.' Though they had a more immediate assistance of the Spirit, yet they would more accurately look into the depths and mys- teries of the gospel, and consider their own prophecies : Prov. ii. 4, ' Search for wisdom as for hidden treasures.' Jewels do not lie upon the surface ; you must get into the caverns and dark receptacles of the earth for them. No more do truths lie in the surface or outside of au expression. The beauty and glory of the scriptures is within, and must be fetched out with much study and prayer. A glance cannot discover the worth of anything to us. He that doth but cast his eye upon a piece of embroidery, doth not discern the curiousness and the art of it. So to know Christ in the bulk doth not work half so kindly with us as when we search out the breadth, and the depth, and the length, the exact dimensions of his love to us.