Well, then, in your carriage towards men let this check injury and indecency of speech : he is God's image. Though images are not to be worshipped, yet the image of God is not to be bespattered with reproaches ; especially if they have a new creation, and a new forming : these are vessels of honour. Consider against whom the sin is in its latest result, a despite done to God himself, because done to his work and image. Solomon saith, Prov. xvii. 5, ' Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker.' God is the maker of all ; but he instanceth in the poor because they are the usual objects of our scoffs and reproaches : though poor and mean, they are the image of God as well as thou : this should beget a restraint and reverence. Nay, the poor are secured by a special reason ; their persons are the image of God, and their condition is the work of God. Besides creation there is an ordination of providence ; you afflict a man, and you afflict misery, which are both of God's making ; and though they cannot avenge the injury, God can, whose command you have not only violated, but his image.
Ver. 10. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and dwsing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
He amplifieth the absurdity by a repetition or new proposal of it. His meekness is observable, he might have reproved them sharply ; but dissuading them from the evils of the tongue, he would himself give them a pattern of modesty and gentleness.
These things ought not to be so ; that is, they should be quite other- wise. It is a phrase savouring of apostolical meekness ; Paul useth it in almost a like case, 1 Tim. v. 13, ' Speaking things they ought not ;' and Titus i. 11, ' Teaching things which they ought not.'
Out of this verse observe : —
Obs. 1. That blessings and cursing do not become the same mouth.
' 'H Tov (IkSvos tIht] eVi to TrponoTVTrov ava^aivei.' — Basil, de Spirilu Sancto, cap. 18. * ' So Maximinus his statues were thrown down, in disgrace to the person.' — Euseb. Hist. Fed., lib. ix., cap. 11.
298 AX EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS. HI. 11-13.
This is like him in jEsop that blew hot and cold with the same breath. A good man should be uniform and constant : the same heart cannot be occupied by God and the devil, nor the same tongue be employed to such different uses. The Pharisee prayed and censured at the same time, Luke xviii. 10 ; and many pray and curse, pray and rail, in the same breath. This is most unseemly ; one part condemneth and destroyeth the other ; the good aggravateth the evil, and the evil disproveth the good : railing is the worse because of the solemnity of the action ; and praying is but a revengeful eructation, when thus managed and accompanied. When the tongue is employed in prayer, it is as it were hallowed and consecrated, and therefore must not be alienated to common and vile purposes. They were carnal wretches that said ' Our tongues are our own,' Ps. xii. 4 ; thine is given up to God.
Obs. 2. From that ougJ/t not to he. We must look not to what we desire to do, but what ought to be done. Lust, or the bent of the spirit, is not the rule of duty. Many advise with no other counsellor but their own hearts ; carnal constraints are an ill warrant. Beasts are led by strength of instinct and natural impulse ; man is to be governed by an outward rule : there is an higher Lord than your own will. Look, then, not to the earnestness of your motions, but the regularity of tliem ; not at what you would, but what you ought.
Ver. 11, 12. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet ivater and hitter? Can the fg-iree, my hretlircn, hear olive-herriesf either a vine, figs ? so can no fountain yield both salt ivater and fresh.
Here are several illustrations taken from the course of nature, to show that one cause and original can have but one orderly and kindly birth. He reasoneth from what is impossible in nature to what is absurd in manners. In the similitudes he speakctli of what falleth out for the most part. If any rare instances can be brought to the contrary, it prcjudiceth not the apostle's scope, which is to show what falleth out in the wonted course and influence of causes, and thereby to declare how incompatible with true religion the evils of the tongue are if not restrained.
Ohs. Nature abhorrctli hypocrisy and double-dealing ; contrary effects from the same cause are monstrous : it is against the whole ordination of God among the creatures. There is not a surer note of hypocrisy then deformity of effects and practices. It is true a Chris- tian hath a double principle— flesh and spirit ; but not a double heart. All the productions of the soul are like the yeanlings of Laban's sheep. Gen. xxx. 30, ' Speckled and spotted : ' but in an hypocrite's life there is an utter dissonancy and disproportion. Hate this double-dealing, when you profess religion and live in sins ; see how contrary it is to the whole course of nature : say, Sure this cannot come from an uniform and good heart. Especially use these illustra- tions to check tlie deformities of your speech ; when you are apt to bless and curse, pray and revile, say, This would be monstrous in nature ; is tliere such another cause in the world as the tongue is — of such different uses and employments ?