Is dead ; that is, cannot perform the functions and offices of life, or of a man.
So faith luithout ivories. — The Papists understand true justifying faith, for they suppose it may be without works; but dead faith cannot be true faith, as a carcase is not a true man, and a true faith cannot be without works, Gal. v. 6. We must understand, then, an external profession of belief, which, because of some resemblance with what is true, is called faith.
^ ' Unde apparet quo sensu elicit, fidem sine operibus mortuam esse, non quod sentiat opera esse formani fidei, sed quod sentit opera esse concomitantia fidei, sicat halitus coucomitatur vitam corporis.' — Cajetan in locum.
270 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. 111. 1.
Is dead ; that is, false or useless to all the ends and purposes of faith.
For practical notes see ver. 17, 20 ; only observe : — Ohs. That naked profession, in respect of true faith, is but as a dead body and carcase. It is so iu two respects : — (1.) It is noisome as a rotten carcase. A carnal Christian is the carcase of a true Christian ; there are the lineaments with corruption. An impure life veiled under profession is as noisome to God as a dead body is to you. When carnal professors draw nigh to Christ, he goeth further off, as you would from what offendeth : Mat. vii. 23, ' De])art from me, ye workers of iniquity ;' I cannot endure your presence. When they come to him in prayer, ' The prayer of the wicked is abomination ;' like the breath that cometh from rotten lungs. (2.) It is useless, as to all the purposes of faith ;^ it cannot unite you to Christ, that you may possess your- selves of his righteousness, or give you a feeling of his Spirit. In short, it bringeth no glory to God, yieldeth no comfort to him that hath it, and no benefit to others ; of no more use than a dead body when the spirits are gone.
CHAPTER III.
Ver. 1. 31]/ brethren, be not niany masters, knoiuing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
Here the apostle diverteth to another matter, reinforcing what he had said in the first chapter of the evil of the tongue ; however, tliis discourse is with good reason subjoined to the former. Those that vainly boast of their own faith are most apt to censure others ; and they that pretend to religion are wont to take the greatest liberty in rigid and bitter reflections upon the errors of their brethren.
Mil brethren. — The compellation, though familiar and usual to our apostle, iiath here a special emphasis. (1.) Good men are many times surprised, and usurp too great a liberty over the fiiilings of others. (2.) He would not deal too rigidly himself, and therefore tempereth his reproof with sweetness. (3.) The title carrieth the force of an argument ; brethren should not affect a mastership over each other.
Be not many masters. — What is the meaning ? The word master bath divers significations. Sometimes it is taken for an absoluteness of power and authority in the church : thus Christ alone is a master, Mat. xxiii. 10 ; his word is a law ; his will is authentic. Sometimes it is taken for a subordinate teaching and opening the counsels of God ; and those who do so by way of office are called * masters in Israel,' John iii. 10 ; and so some take it in this place, and make the sense of the a])ostle's dissuasive to be, that every one should not easily or unlawfully invade the office of public teaching. And the reason, 'knowing that we shall receive,' &c., they open thus: because God requireth more of them that are teachers than of others, and so by rash entering into the office they run the hazard of the greater
' ' OiiUv K^pSos vyiovi irivTfus, ttjs iroKirelai Su<pOapn^vr}s.' — Chrysoatom de Sacerdotio, lib. iv.
JaS. III. 1.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 271
judgment. But the context will not bear this sense, the bent and drift of it being against the ill use of the tongue ; and the reason annexed will not gratify it without much straining ; and the scripture saith, that for not reproving and warning we draw the greater judgment upon ourselves, rather than by teaching or reproving, Ezek. xxxiii. 6. Therefore this second sense is not proper ; neither can the first be applied, as master is taken for authenticness in the church, though Austin and Beda seem so to understand it, as if the apostle had dissuaded them from setting up themselves as masters and heads of factions, and broaching novel doctrines, that they might appear in the head of a train, or, in the scripture phrase, ' draw disciples after them.' But this is wholly alien and foreign to the apostle's scope. Master, then, is sometimes taken in the worst sense, KaTaxPW^<-'<^^^y fc*i' a supercilious reprover, for one that is gotten into a chair of arrogance, whence he doth jwo imperio, magisterially enough inveigh against the practices of other men ; and so it is taken here. And the apostle maketh choice of this expression, 'be not many masters' — (1.) To show he doth not speak of public and authorised reproof. God hath set some in the church that are to be censores morum, masters of manners, as the teacher and ecclesiastical magistrate ; but because God hath allowed a few, let not every one be a master, or turn censurer : ' Be not many ; ' we are all apt, but this itch must be killed. (2.) To show that he doth not forbid private brotherly admonitions, such as proceed from Christian care and love, but such a reproving as was supercilious and masterly, managed with as much sharpness and rigour as a man would use to his slave, or a master to a scholar of the lowest class and standing. And so some understand that ttoWoI ScSdaKaXot, be not much masters, as if iroXkol were taken for irokv, many for much.