JaS. IV. 12. J UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 383
grace hath the hap to suffer under some ill resemblance. As they were wont to deal with Christians in the primitive times, to put them in bearskins, and then to bait them, so graces are miscalled and misre- presented, and then hooted at. The law saith. Be zealous, be peace- able, &c., but in the world's reckoning zeal is fury, peaceableness and holy moderation is time-serving and base compliance; pressing hum- bling doctrine is legalism, &c. Thus do many deceive themselves with names; but do not you judge the law in all this? The law saith, Sitting at the wine all day is drunkenness, and you call this good fellowship, &c.
But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the laiv, hut a judge ; that is, when thou exercisest such a rash superiority over the law, thou dost clearly exempt thyself from obedience and subjection to it. Observe hence : —
Ohs. Those that judge the word, no wonder if they be given over to the disobedience of it. It is done grossly by those that either deny the divine authority of the scriptures, or accuse it, as the Papists do, as an uncertain rule, or examine all the doctrines of it by their private reason, or the writings and precepts of men, &c. And it is done more closely by those that come to judge the word, rather than to be judged by it. It is true, we have a liberty to examine, but we should not come with a mind to cavil and censure. The pulpit, which in a sense is God's tribunal, should not be our bar. The matter delivered must be examined by scripture modestly and humbly, but we must not despise and slight God's ordinance, and come hither merely to sit judges of men's parts or weaknesses. This is the ready way to beget an irreverent and fearless spirit. And then when men lose their awe and reverence, their restraint is gone, and they grow loose, or despe- rately erroneous. God will punish their pride with some sudden fall. Look to your ends, Christians ; } ou will find a great deal of difference between coming to hear and coming to censure. If you come with such a vain aim, see if you get anything by a sermon but matter of carping, and see if that do not bring you to looseness, and that to atheism. Usually this is the sad progress of proud spirits. First preaching is censured, not examined, then the manners are tainted; then the word itself is questioned, and then men lose all fear of God and man.
Ver. 12. There is one laivgiver, that is able to save and to destroy : lolio art thou thatjudgest another^
He persisteth in the same argument. God the lawgiver is the only judge ; and who art thou that thou invadest or usurpest his office ?
There is one laiugiver. — But you will say, We can name many others, Lycurgus, Zaleucus, Solon, &c., many who had aho potestatem vitw et necis, power of life and death, and many now that make and dispense laws. How is this sentence true ? I answer — Grotius sup- poseth the apostle intendeth Christ by this expression, in opposition to Moses, as arguing against those that would continue the use of the ceremonies, and observe difference between days and meats, &c. Now saith he, we in the Christian church have but one lawgiver, Christ, and not Moses. These must not be yoked and coupled together. But this is too argute, and offereth too much force to the context. More
384 All EXI'0«1TU)N. WITH NOTES, [JaS. IV. 12-
proLal)ly, then, he meaneth — (1.) That there is but one absolute and .supreme lawgiver, whose will is the rule of justice. Others are directed by an external rule, and prudent considerations of equit}' and safety, and therein they are but as God's deputies and substitutes, either in church or commonwealth: 2 Chron. xix. G, ' Ye judge not for man, but for the Lord; the Lord is with you in the matter of judgment.' (2.) In spiritual things none else can give laws to the conscience. In external policy the laws and edicts of men are to be observed. But he speaketh of the internal government of the con- science, where God alone judgeth by the word; for he speaketh against those that in indifterent things would set up their own will as a rule of sin or duty. Observe : —
06-9, That God alone can give laws to the conscience. So Isa. xxxiii. 22, ' The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.' Take them in a spiritual sense, and the words are exclusive: God, and no other, our only judge, our only law- giver, &c. God only knoweth the conscience, and therefore God only must judge it, and give laws to it. God only can punish the con- science for sin, and therefore he only can make a sin. It is the privi- lege of his word to ' convert the soul,' Ps. xix.
Object. There may be an objection framed against this doctrine out of Rom. xiii. 5, where it is said, ' Wherefore ye must be subject, not only for v/rath, but for conscience' sake.' So that men's commands seem to oblige the c(^nscience.