* See Josephua Antiq., lib. xviii. ; and Pbilo in Hist. Legat. ad Caium. See also Light- foot in Comment, on Acts.
* ' Non torquendus quia homicida es, quia fornicator, sed tantum quia dives, quia divitiis male utc^-is, quia dataa tibi divitiaa ad opus sanctum non intelligia' — Salvian. ad EccUsiam Catholicam, lib. i.
JaS. V. 2, 3.J UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 403
cast into one heap, and bestowed upon you. So Prov. xv. 16, ' Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.' These are principles that are only relished by men of a mortified and contented mind.
Ver. 2, 3. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments moth- eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a loitness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it luerefire. Ye have heaped up treasure together for the last days.
Here the apostle cometh particularly to discover their sin, and the reason of God's judgment. The method is observable ; he first threat- eneth, and then cometh particularly to convince. Note hence : —
Ohs. That every solemn threatening must be accompanied with sound conviction. This headeth the arrow, and maketh it enter. Every luoe must have a for, Mat. xxiii., otherwise men will not care for terrible words. Such brutish thunder becometh a Mahometan dervis, rather than a preacher of the gospel. The success of our work dependeth upon evidence, and ' the demonstration of the Spirit,' 1 Cor. ii. 4.
Your riches are corrupted, your garments moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered. — It is observable that he speaketh of all kinds of wealth. ' Your riches are corrupted ; ' that is, corn, and wine, and oil, all things subject to corruption. ' Your garments are moth- eaten ; ' that is, silks, clothes, linens, and all such kinds of wares. Then, by the ' rust of gold and silver,' he intendeth the decay of all kinds of metals. Now by these circumstances the apostle doth — (1.) Evince their sin ; that they would hoard up their goods and money, and sufier them to be eaten up by moths and rust, and so to be cor- rupted or perish, without any profit at all, rather than lay them out for good uses, the supply of the poor, and public commodity. (2.) Up- braid their folly ; that they were such fools to place their confidence in that which is of so perishing and frail a nature as to be eaten out by rust and moths. (3.) The apostle may produce these circumstances as the first pledges of God's displeasure against them, and the preface and introduction of the curse upon their hoards and treasures, in that they were defaced or destroyed by moths, wet, or rust. Out of the whole, observe: —
Ohs. 1. That sordid sparing is a sure sign of a worldly heart. Covetousness is all for keeping ; as the fool in the Gospel talked of ' laying up in his barns,' Luke xii. 18. Those that are enamoured, will not part with their pictures of desire, and let their darling go out of sight ; that which God would have communicated and laid out, they are all for keeping and laying it up. God gave us wealth, not that we should be hoarders, but dispensers. The noblest act of the crea- ture is communication to others' necessities ; but a covetous man doth not dispense to his own ; a spiteful envy keepeth him from the supply of others, and a carnal esteem' from sparing to himself. Seneca calleth covetous men chests.^ We think them men, and they are but coffers ; who would envy a trunk well stored ? Well, then, beware of ' withholding more thati is meet,' Prov. xi. 24, of a delight
■^ ' Hominem ilium judicas ; area est ; quis serario, aut plenis locuiis invidet ? ' — Seneca,
404 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [Jah. V. 2, 3.
ill hoarding ; it is a sure note that the world has too much of your heart.
Obs. 2. Keeping thuigs from public use till they be corrupted or spoiled is sordid sparing. When you lay them not out upon God, or others, or yourself, you are justly cul})able. The word for money is Xpnf^<^y which siguifieth nsc ; you abuse it when you make it KTyfia, a liossession ; then you were as good have so many stones as so many treasures. It is against the ordination of God and the common good of human societies. Scourge your souls with remorse for this baseness. Your meat putrifieth when many a hungry belly wanteth it; your clothes are eaten of moths, which would cover the nakedness of many a poor soul in the world ; your money rusteth, which should be laid out for public defence. The inhabitants of Constantinople would aifurd no money to the Emperor Constantinus Pakeologus when he begged from door to door for a supply for the soldiers ; but what was the issue ? the barbarous enemy won the city and got all. The like story there is of Musteatzem,^ the covetous caliph of Babylon, who was such an idolater of his wealth and treasures that he would not dispend anything for the necessary defence of his city, whereupon it was taken, and the caliph famished to death, and his mouth, by Haalon, the Tartarian conqueror, filled with melted gold.