Ver. 7. Be patient, therefore, brethren, nnto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long 2:)atieuce for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
He now diverteth from the rich oppressors unto the ])oor faithful l)rethren that were oppressed ; by the illative particle, therefore, we may see the former paragraph was for their sakes. The rich men shall be punished for their wickedness and oppression, therefore be you patient.
Be 2>atient, therefore, brethren, iMaKpodvixi^aare. — The word is put for long-suffering, and so usually translated, which is a further degree of patience ; for patience is a sense of afilictions without murmuring, and of injuries without revenge. Now long-suffering is patience extended and lengthened out to that which our apostle calleth its perfect work. Observe : —
Obs. It is the duty of the children of God to be patient under their sufferings, thougii they be long and sharp. It is easier in a calm and sedate condition to discourse of patience than to exercise it in time of trial. Philosophers have discoursed of it and commended it ; but Cin-istians themselves have staggered when they have been exorcised with a sharp sense of evils. When God giveth up his people to the
JaS. V. 7.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 419
lust of adversaries, then it is sad, and we are apt to murmur ; and yet the apostle saitli we should suffer with a long patience. I shall spare motives, and a little show you what Christian patience is. It differeth from security and stoical insensibleness ; there can be no patience where there is no sense of evil. Christianity doth not abrogate affections, but regulate them. Carnal men put off that which they cannot put away, and are not patient, but stupid and careless. There are other remedies in Christianity than quenching our sorrows in the wine of pleasures. Again, it differeth from moral patience, which is nothing but a yielding to necessity, and is usually accompanied with vain thoughts, Jer. iv. 14, and carnal workings of spirit. When God layetli on crosses, men please themselves with suppositions of worldly profit, and how their present condition may conduce to secular advancement ; as when God taketh away wife or children, men do not think of submission to the hand of God, but the capacity of augmenting their worldly estate, &c. In short, Christian patience supposeth a sense of evil, and then, in the formality of it, it is a submission of the whole soul to the will of God : wherein observe — (1.) The nature ; it is a submission of the whole soul. The judg- ment subscribeth, ' Good is the word of the Lord,' &c., Isa. xxxix. 9. Though it were to him a terrible word, yet the submission of a sanc- tified judgment can call it good. Then the will accepteth: Lev. xxvi. 41, 'If they shall accept the punishment ;' that is, take it kindly from God that it is no worse. Then the affections are restrained, and anger and sorrow brought under the commands of the word. Then the tongue is bridled, lest discontent plash over : Aaron held his peace, Lev. x. 3. (2.) Consider the grounds and proper considerations upon which all this is carried on ; usually there is such a progress as this in the spiritual discourse : — (1st.) The soul seeth God in it : Ps. xxxix. 9, ' I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.' (2d.) It seeth God acting with sovereignty : Job ix. 12, ' None can say unto him. What dost thou?' And elsewhere, ' He giveth no account of his matters.' (3d.) Lest this should make the heart storm, it seeth sovereignty modified and mitigated in the dispensation of it with several attributes. With justice : Deut. xxvii. 26, when every curse was pronounced, they were to say Amen, that if it come to pass, amen is but a righteous dispensation. With mercy: Ezra ix. 13, * Thou hast punished us less than we deserved.' They were afflicted, they might have been destroyed ; they were in Babylon, they might have been in hell. With faithfulness : they look upon afflictions as federal dispensations, as appendages of the covenant of grace: Ps. cxix. 71, 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might keep thy statutes.' When they are threshed, it is but to lose their stalk and husk: God's faithfulness would not suffer them to want such a sweep help. With wisdom : Isa. xxx. 18, ' God is a God of judgment ;' it is meant in his dispensations. Let God alone ; he is too just to do us wrong, and too kind and wise to do us harm.
Unto the coming of the Lord. — Here is an argument to enforce the duty ; God will come and right your injuries. But of what coming doth he speak? Every manifestation of God's grace or judgment is called a coming of the Lord. It is in vain in so known a case to heap
420 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [JaS, V. 7.
up places. More especially his solemn jiidp^ments on a church or people are expressed by that term ; so to all the churches in the Reve- lations : ' I -will come quickly, and take away thy candlestick,' Rev. ii. ; to Per<;amus, ' Repent or 1 will come quickly,' Rev. iii. ; so to Sardis, ' I will come as a thief,' &c. Any solemn progress and march of God in a judicial way is expressed by coming ; but most chiefly it is applied to Christ's glorious appearing in the clouds, called his second coming. But you will reply again, Which, then, is meant here? any particular coming of Christ, or else his solemn coming to general judgment ? I answer — Both may be intended ; the primitive Chris- tians thought both would fall out together.