^ * A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia.' - Arist. Rhet.
332 AN ExrosiTiox, with notes, [J as. IV. 2.
wicked man hateth some g;ross and starini!^ sins ; otlievs, wliicli are plausible and ])rofit<i])le, are reserved as a sweet morsel under tlieir tongues. The hatred of a godly man is perpetual and irreconcilable ; that of a wicked man may be i)acified; he distasteth sin when con- science is roused. A man's heart I'iseth against a sword when it is drawn against him, but after it is laid down he will take it up ; that resembleth a wicked man's resistance. A man's heart riseth against a toad, so that he will not touch it dead or alive ; that resembleth the natural and constant enmity that is between a gracious heart and sin. (5.) In regard of the effects. A gracious soul is more humbled and cast down: Rom. vii., '0 wretched man that I am,' &c. It putteth him upon humble and pious addresses to God by prayer, and maketh him more jealous and watcliiul over his own heart ; but a convinced man loseth ground conflicting with sin in his own strength ; by his own thoughts he cometh at length to lose all awe and fear.
Ver. 2. Ye hist, and have not : ije kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight and luar, yet ye have not, because ye ash not.
In the context the apostle applieth himself to the cure of carnal desires ; he hath mentioned one effect in the 1st ver.se, inward and outward trouble, both in the world and in our own members ; he now cometh to another argument, the dis.«atisfaction and successless- ness of those endeavours wiiich come from lust, they distract the head with cares, and engage the heart in sins, and all to no purpose.
Ye lust, eTTidvfielTe, ye desire ; but usually it is taken, in an ill sense, for inordinate and passionate desires ; therefore it is well ren- dered 7je lust.
And have not. — It may be taken two ways ; either you never obtained, or have now lost: nude parta male dilabuntur — ill means seldom arrive to possession, or, if they do, possession is soon lost. Grotius supposeth the apostle intimateth the great want and dearth they sustained in tlie days of Claudius, Acts xi. 28 ; all their violent practices could not secure them against the inconveniences of those times. There is somewhat a like expression with this, Prov. xiii. 4, ' The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing.' But there the word s[)eaketh of empty wishes and lasy velleities, here of pas- sionate desires ; there of the soul of the sluggard, here of the soul of the covetous.
Ye kill. — Calvin, Beza, Cajetan, Erasmus, and others, read (f>dovfLTe, ye envy, though most Greek copies read as we do, <^ovevere, yc kill. The other reading was the rather embraced, because the charge seemed harsh to say, 'ye kill,' when, in the received exposition, the wars here mentioned were only private contentions and lawsuits. But we cleared it before, that tvars is here taken properly ; and therefore are not uri^^ed with this inconvenience, and need not under- stand it, as Q'^cimienius doth, of sjjiritual killing, as if the sense were, ye kill your own souls ; or of inter[)retative murder, mentioned 1 John iii. 15 ; but may exjjound it in the usual and received import of the word, covetousness going as high as murder ; as 1 Kings x.xi. 1,2, and Prov. i. 19, 'Every one that is greedy of gain taketh away the life of
JaS. IV, 2.1 UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 333
the owners thereof.' In those public tumults, occasioned l)y their rapine and avarice, many were slain.
And desire to have, koI ^t]\ovt€, ye eimdate, or are given to envy. Tlie word is sometimes taken in a good sense : 1 Cor. xiv. 2, ' Foras- much as ye are emulous of spiritual gifts ;' the word is l^rfkovre. There is a good emulation when we strive to imitate them that excel in virtue, or to go beyond them ; but there is also a carnal emulation, which chiefly respecteth outward enjoyments, and noteth a grief that any should enjoy any outward excellency equal with us or beyond us, and a strong covetous or ambitious desire of appropriating that excel- lency to ourselves. In the first there is malice, in the second covet- ousness : we take it chiefly for the latter act of emulation, and therefore render it, ' ye desire to have.'
And cannot obtain, ou hvvaaOe eirLTvxelv. — The word is emphatical, ye cannot arrive to happiness ; that is, either to their happiness whom ye thus envy or emulate, or else to the happiness you fancy, carnal desires being either disappointed, or else increasing with enjoyment ; it is a distemper that will not be satisfied. The language of lust is give, give ; it is an appetite without bound or measure. If we had one world, yet we are not happy, we would covet another : carnal desire is a gulf that is never filled up.i Enjoyments seem little, because there is still so much in hope ; like children, that greedily desire a thing, and when they have it despise it ; or like drunkards, who are always pouring in, yet do not quench, but inflame the appetite. See Eccles. iv. 8, and v. 10. Well may it be said, then, ' ye cannot obtain.' Carnal men possess much, but have nothing.