VOL. IV. M
l78 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. I. 27.
(2.) The lusts of the world, they stain the glory find deface the excel- lency of your natures : ' Corruption is in the world through lust,' 2 Peter i. 4. Your affections were made for higlier purposes than to be melted out in lusts. To love the pleasures of the world, it is as if you should defile your bed with a blackamoor, and be so sick of lust as to hug nastiness and embrace the dung, Lam. iv. 5. (3.) The men of the world are sooty, dirty creatures. We cannot converse with them but they leave their iilthiness upon us. The apostle saith, 2 Tim. ii. 21, ' If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel of honour, sanctified and meet for the master's use.' From these, that is, from the leprosy of evil examples, for the apostle speaketh of those vessels of dishonour that are in the great house of God, the world, which a man cannot touch Avithout defilement. A man cannot hold any communion with them, but he shall be the worse for them. ' These are spots in your love-feasts,' Jude 12 ; they defile the com])any.
Well, then — (1.) Let us more and more grow weary of the world. A man that would always live here is like a scullion that loveth to lie among the pots. In those blessed mansions that are above, ' there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,' Rev, xxi. 27. There we shall have pure com- pany, and be out of the reach and danger of temptations. There are no devils in heaven ; they were cast out long since, 2 Peter ii. 6, and you are to fill up their vacant rooms and places. The devil, when he Avas not fit for heaven, he was cast into the world, a fit place for misery, sin, and torment ; and now this is the devil's walk. Hecom- passeth the earth to and fro. Who would be in love with a place of bondage ? with Satan's diocese ? that odd, dirty corner of the uni- verse, where a man can hardly move back or forth, but he shall be defiled? (2.) While we live here, let us keep ourselves as unspotted as we can. In a place of snares, we should walk with the more care : Rev. iii. 4, ' There are a few names that have not defiled their garments ; they shall walk with me in white.' There are some, though few, that escape the taint of the world. You are kept by the power of God ; yet, in some sense, you must keep yourselves : you are to ' watch, and keep your garments,' Rev. xvi. 15. You are to act faith upon the victory of Christ, by which ' he hath overcome the world,' 1 John V 4. You are to commend yourselves to God in prayei-, that he may keep and * present you faultless before the presence of his glory,' Jude 24. You are to discourse upon the promises, and to work them into your hearts by spiritual reasoning, that you may ' escape the cor- ruption that is in the world through lust,' 2 Peter i. 4, and 2 Cor. viL 1. You are to avoid communion with the lepers of the world : we should learn a holy pride,^ and scorn such company. A man that keepcth ill company is like him that walketh in the sun, tanned insensibly. All these things you must do. It is a folly to think that because the power is from God, therefore the care should not be in ourselves.
^ 'Discamus sanctain superbiam, et sciamus noa esse illia meliores.' — //teron.
JaS. II. 1.1 UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 179
CHAPTER II.
Ver. 1. My hretJiren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, luith respect of persons.
This chapter containeth two special admonitions, which were very needful as the state of things then were. The first is against ' re- spect of persons,' because of outward advantages, especially in church matters. The other is against a vain opinion and ostentation of faith, where there was no presence or testimony of works to commend it. He dealeth in the former admonition from the 1st verse to the 14th. And in the latter from thence to the end of the chapter.
In this 1st verse he propounJeth the matter to them which he would have them to avoid, ' respect of persons ' because of some out- ward excellency, which hath no kind of affinity or pertinency at all to religion. The sense will be most clear by a particular explication of the words.
3Iy brethren. — An usual compellation throughout the epistle. Some think he chiefly intendeth in this expression the presbyters and deacons, w4io had a great hand (say they) in giving every one their con- venient places. But I know no reason why we should so restrain it, it being applied in all the other passages of the epistle to the whole body of those to whom he wrote ; and here, where he dissuadeth them from respect of persons, it seemeth to have a special respect, as noting the equal interest of all Christians in the same Father.