Justified hy ivorls ; that is, approved to be sincere, and honoured by God before all the congregation ; there being a special charge to save her and her household Avhen all her countrymen were slain, and she being after joined in marriage with a prince of Israel.
When she had received the messengers, and sent them out another way. — The story is in the 2d of Joshua. But is not this act question- able ? Is it not treachery ? Did she not sin against that love and faithfulness that she owed to her country ? Abulensis thinketh she had not sinned if she had betrayed the messengers ; but vainly, and against the direct testimony of scripture : she sinned not, because she had a warrant and })articular revelation from God that the land of Canaan, and so her town, was given to the Israelites, Josh. ii. D-ll, &c. And being gained to the faith, she was to leave her Gentile relation, and to be amassed into one body with the people of Israel, and so bound to })romote their interest, as Calvin well observeth.^ But you will say, If there be no sin, wherein lieth the excellency of the action H what is it more than civility, or necessary prudence and caution, she being thus persuaded? I answer — (1.) There was much
^ ' Sola cognitio Dei, quam Deu.s auimo ejus indidit, cam eximit a culpa, tanquain Bolutarn commuui lege, quamvi.s ad cum usque diem obetricta fuisset suLs popularibus; ubi tamen co-optata fuisaet in corpus Ecclesltc, nova conditio nianumissio fuit a jure societatis, quo jure devinciuntur cives.' — Calvin in Joshuam, ii. 4.
JaS. II. 25.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 267
faith in it, in believing what she had heard of God in the wilderness and the desert places of Arabia, and magnifying his power and ability to destroy them. Though the people of her city were in great strength and prosperity, they thought themselves safe within their walls, and were not sensible of their sins and ensuing dangers ; and besides, God having revealed it to her by some special instinct, she was confident of future success : Josh, ii. 11, ' The Lord your God is God in heaven above and the earth beneath : I know the Lord hath given you the land,' And so, as Origen observeth,! she acknow- ledgetli what is past, believeth what is present, and foretelleth what is to come. (2.) There was obedience in it ; for whatever she did here- in, she 'did it out of a reverence and dread of God, whom she knew to be the author of this war ; and though there was some weakness in tlie action, yet for the main of it, it was a duty, (3,) There was self- denial in it ; it was an action that might have been of a very dangerous consequence to her ; but to manifest her fidelity to God she over- looketh the threats and cruelties of her citizens,^ the promiscuous events of war, the burning of her country, which she would never have done, if she had thought a profession of confidence enough.
The points observable in this verse are many. I shall dispatch them briefly.
Ohs. 1. Many times God may choose the worst of sinners. Faith in a harlot is acceptable : ' The last shall be first ; ' that is, those that set out late for heaven do often make more way than an early profes- sor. No women are reckoned in the genealogy of Christ but such as were stained with some infamy ; idolatrous women, adulterous women, in Christ's own line, such as Eahab, Euth, Bathsheba, Tamar. Chrysostom ^ givetli the reason, wq laTpo^, ov^ &>? ScKuaTtj'i 'jrapayeyovev, he came to save sinners, and therefore would be known to come of sinners according to the flesh. Manasses was received after witchcraft, Paul after blasphemy, 1 Tim. i. 13 ; and all as precedents in which God would show forth mercy and long-suffering ; as Kahab here. So you shall see it is said. Mat. xxi, 31, ' Publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God.' The most odious and de- spised sinners, when they turn to God by repentance, find grace and place in Christ's heart.
Obs. 2. The meanest faith must justify itself by works and gracious efi'ects. Eahab, a Gentile convert, doth not only profess, but preserve the spies. Let not hypocrites plead every one is not like Abraham. Are you like Eahab ? Can you produce any evidence of your faith ? The lowest degree will show itself by some efiect or other. Christ in the garden taketh notice of the ' green figs,' Cant. ii. 13. The smallest faith, though it be but like a grain of mustard-seed, will have some branches.
Ohs. 3. Believers, though they justify their profession, are still
1 ' Ilia qucc aliquando erat meretrix, jam Spiritu Sancto repleta est, et de practeritis quidem conStetur, de presentibus vero credit, prophetat et prsenunciat de futuria.' — Origen. Horn. 3, in Josuani.
- ' Non mina3 civiuin, non bellorum pericula, non incendia patrice, non suorum pericula terreut : disce, vir, disce, Christiane, quomodo verurn Jesum sequi debeas, quando f aemina contempsit omnia sua.' — Ambrose in Enai-rat. Ps. xxxvii.
^ Chrysostom. Homil. 3, in Matt,
2u8 AX EXPOSITION', WITH NOTES, [JaS. II. 25.