Obs. 1. That where envy and strife is, there will be tumults and confusions. Ill affections divide as much as ill opinions. Lust is the great makebait. An envious proud spirit may undo a commonwealth. Look to your hearts then ; it is a sad thing to be the plague and pests of your country : if you would not be noted with such a black coal, mortify your vile affections. We learn hence, also, that rehgion is a friend to civil peace ; it striketh not only at disorder in the life, but lusts in the heart, at envy and pride, the privy roots of contention. Why should the world hale it ? It representeth a God who is ' the
310 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [Jas. III. 17.
God of pccace, and not of confusion,' 1 Cor. xiv. 33. It holdeth forth a gospel that is ' the gospel of peace,' Acts x. 36. It establisheth a wisdom which prescribcth all ways of peace, Heb. xii. 14; Rom. xii. 18. It increaseth the number of the godly, who do best in any com- munity ; mortified spirits are most peaceable. Pride, envy, self- seeking, hurry others into confusions, and they shake all to serve their own lusts and interests.
Ohs. 2. Through confusion and contention every evil work aboundeth. Wickedness then taketli heart and courage, and acteth without re- straint. This day is this scripture fulfilled before our eyes ; we need no other comment but our own experience. Envy maketh us quarrel one with another, and quarrelling openeth a gap to all looseness. Never had the devil such a harvest in England as since these un- happy differences ; one party debauching the country with vice, another poisoning it with error. Christ hath got some ground indeed ; but when shall the dregs of the war be purged out ? Thus usually it is ; in the midst of contentions laws are silent, religion loseth its awe, and then men do what is right in their own eyes. There cannot be a better argument than experience to make us see the benefit of public order and peace.
Ver. 17. But the loisdom that is from above is first pure, then peace- able, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, ivithout partiality, and icithoiit hypocrisy.
He cometli now to reckon up the fruits of true wisdom. He calleth it ' the wisdom that is from above ; ' because, as I said before, all wisdom is known by its descent. He giveth it several properties ; they will be best explained in the observations.
Obs. 1. True wisdom is a pure and holy wisdom. "Ayvrj, the word which we translate pui^e, signifieth chaste, modest. There is a double purity,^ such as excludeth mixture ; so we say pure wine, when it is not sophisticated and embased ; and such as exchideth filthiness ; so we say pure water, which is not nuidded and defiled ; in the former sense purity is opposed to double-mindedness or liypocrisy, in the latter, to filthiness or uncleanness, which is the pruper considera- tion of this place ; the word, as I intimated, signifying chaste. But you will say, ' Who can say, my heart is clean ; I am pure from my sin ? ' Prov. xx. 9. The answer will be best given in opening the term ; I shall do it by six pairs or couples. (1.) It is a cleanness in heart and life. Christ saith, Mat. v., ' Blessed are the pure in heart ; ' and David saith, Ps. cxix., ' Blessed are the undcfiled in the way.' The heart must be pure, and the way undefiled. 80 James iv. 8, ' Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double- minded.' Persons scandalous, whom he intendeth l)y sinners, must cleanse their hands ; hypocrites, noted in the other expression, doiible- minded, they must make their hearts clean. The first care mu.st be spent about the heart ; a pure spirit will not brook filthy thoughts, unclean desires, fleshly counsels. Clu-ist condcmneth the glance, Mat. v. 22 ; and Peter speaketh of some that hud eyes fxeaov<; /J-ocxa- X1O09, ' full of the adulteress,' 2 Peter ii. 14, intimating the impure rollings of the fancy. True Christians do ' abstain from the lusts of
' Dr Hammond, Pract. Cat. in Mat. v. 8.-
JaS. III. 17.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 311
the flesh/ 1 Peter ii. 11, as well ' as mortify the deeds of the flesh,' Rom. viii. 13. Then after this we must look to the life, that it be void of scandals and blots ; that as we do not incur Ijlame from inward guilt, so we do not procure just shame from the outward conversation, that the good conscience may be a feast to give a cheerful heart, and the good name an ointment to give a cheerful countenance. As in the soul there should not be 7rci6o<; enrtOvfiia';, ' the passionateness of lust ; ' so the body must be kept ' in sanctification and in honour,' 1 Thes. iv. 4. This is the first pair and couple, a pure spirit and a pure life. (2.) It will not brook the filthiness either of error or sin ; error is a blot, as well as sin. The way of God is called ' the holy command- ment,' and Gentilism ' the pollutions of the world,' 2 Peter ii. 20. Jude calleth false teachers ' filthy dreamers,' ver. 8. Dreamers, be- cause of that folly and dotage that is in error ; and filthy, because of the defilement of it ; and therefore pure wisdom must be made up of truth and holiness. It is said of deacons, 1 Tim. iii. 9, ' Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.' Precious liquors are best kept in clean vessels. Some are zealous against errors, that yet are slaves to their own lusts. It is as great a judgment to be delivered up to vile afi'ections as to a vain mind. Jerome speaketh of some qui agehant vitam jpaganam suh Christiano nomine, were heathens not in opinion but conversation. The bishop of Aliff said in the Council of Trent, that the Protestants had orthodoxos mores, but hcereficum fidem, that they were in life orthodox, however faulty in belief. But, alas ! now it may be said that many have an heretical conversation, and some of the worst heterodoxism is in their manners. These are like Ithacius, of whom Sulpicius Severus saith there was nothing good or notable in him but only the hatred of the Priscillian heresy. Others, on the contrary, are of a plausible behaviour, but of a vain mind ; sober in regard of fleshly delights, but drunk with error ; see Rom. xii. 3. There is less shame, and remurmuration of conscience goeth along with error, and therefore we do not startle at it so much as at sin, * Julian, the apostate, was a very just, temperate, strict man, but a bitter enemy to Cln-ist.' ^ So Swenkefield, a man devout and charitable, notable in prayer, famous for alms, but of a very erro- neous and fanatical spirit. It is excellent when we can see truth and holiness matched. Sound in faith, fervent in love, how well do these together. (3.) In word and deed. We read of the pure life, and the ' pure lip,' Zeph. iii. 9. There is a communication that becometh Canaan,'^ and there is a life that becometh that language. Many securely sin with the tongue, and would not be mistaken for so bad as they appear in their talk. But your tongues are not your own ; they ' defile the whole body,' James iii. 6. The apostle condemneth ' filthy communication,' and ' foolish speaking,' Eph. v. 4, and iv. 29. There is a sanctified discourse that becometh the children of God. On the other side, many affect a luscious kind of discoursing, and such a flaunting phraseology as is proper to deceivers . 2 Peter ii. 18, ' They speak great swelling words of vanity,' virepoyKa fiaTaio- TTjTo^. So many nowadays 3 bluster with the terms of divine teach-