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Ver. 6. But let him ask in faith] [See Trapp on “Heb 11:6”] Nothing wavering] We are too ready in temptation to doubt, yea, to hold it a duty to doubt. This (saith one) is to light a candle before the devil, as we use to speak.
Ver. 7. That he shall receive] Unless he strive against his doubting, and wade out of it, as the moon doth out of the cloud. Qui timide rogat, negare docet; He that prayeth doubtingly, shuts heaven’s gates against his own prayers.
Ver. 8. Unstable in all his ways] As he is that stands on one leg, or as a bowl on a smooth table. Contrariwise, a believer is as a square stone set into the building, 1 Peter 2:7; shaken he may be, but he is rooted as a tree; wag he may up and down as a ship at anchor, but yet he removes not.
Ver. 9. Rejoice in that he is exalted] Gr. εν τω υψει αυτου, in his sublimity, in that h igh honour of his, John 1:12. This should make him hold up his head, but not too high; be cheerful, but not withal scornful. Laeti simus, sed non securi, gaudentes in Domino, sed caventes a recidivo. (Bern.)
Ver. 10. In that he is made low] Drawn from that high esteem of outward excellencies. He is now made a greater man, because he seems too big for them; or low, that is, lowly.
Ver. 11. Shall the rich man fade] Perish eternally, if he trust in uncertain riches, and not in the living God. See James 5:1. Thus that sapless fellow Nabal faded, when his heart died within him, nor could his riches any more relieve him than they did that rich and wretched cardinal, Henry Beaufort, Chancellor of England in the reign of Henry VI, who murmured at death, that his riches could not reprieve him till a further time. Fie (quoth he), will not death be hired? Will money do nothing? No; money here bears no mastery. (Acts and Mon.)
Ver. 12. Blessed is the man] Provided that God teach him, as well as chastise him, Psalms 94:12, instruct him as well as correct him. See my Love Tokens, par. 2. He shall receive the crown] A man can be content to have his head broken with a bag of gold, so he may have it, when it is done. Eternal life is called “a crown”: 1. For the perpetuity of it; for a crown hath neither beginning nor ending. 2. For the plenty; because as the crown compasseth on every side, so there is nothing wanting in this life. 3. The dignity; eternal life is a coronation day. (Bishop Lake.) Tertullian wrote his book De corona militis Concerning the crown of a soldier, upon occasion of a certain Christian soldier’s refusing to be crowned, and saying, Non decet Christianum in hac vita coronari; A Christian is to be crowned when he cometh to heaven.
Ver. 13. I am tempted of God] The inclination of man’s heart to good, is of itself and properly of God, as light is of the sun. His inclination to evil is by accident only of God, like as darkness is of the sunset by accident, being properly not of the sun, but of the earth.
Ver. 14. Drawn away of his lust] Δελεαζομενος, Satan hath only a persuading sleight, not an enforcing might. Our own concupiscence carries the greatest stroke. And enticed] As the silly fish is by the bait covering the hook, being first drawn aside into the clear water. Or as the unwary younker, drawn to folly by some subtle she-sinner; who thereupon conceiveth, and bringeth forth a bastardly brood. Δελεαρ, quasi δολεαρ, a δολος.
Ver. 15. When lust hath conceived] As the plot of all diseases lies in the humours of the body; so of all sin, in the lust of the soul. There is in it a πανσπερμια, a tacit consent, a seed plot of all sin. The Papists say (but falsely) that it is the smallest of all sins, not deserving any more of God’s wrath than only a want of his beatific presence, and that too without any pain or sorrow of mind from the apprehension of so great a loss. There are also of ours that say, That it is not forbidden by the law; but sure we are, it is cursed and condemned (and therefore forbidden) by the law. Empedoclis vocabulum apud Aristot.
Ver. 16. Do not err] Wander not, as wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever, Jude 13, by seeking to father your faults upon God, as Adam did, Genesis 3:12.
Ver. 17. Every good gift, &c.] A hexameter verse in the Greek; as little intended perhaps by the apostle as the first line in Tacitus, which yet may be scanned a long verse. And perfect giving] Not temporals only (which are good gifts), but spirituals also, those perfect givings. The greatest excellencies in us do as much depend upon God as the effigies in the glass doth upon the face that causeth it; or as the light doth upon the sun, that father of all the light in the lower world. With whom is no variableness] παραλλαγη, no parallax, as there is with the sun, when he declines and leaves us darkling. This word notes the sun’s motion from east to west, as the following word τροπη, turning, notes his motion every year from north to south. That which the apostle w ould here assert is, that God tempts no man to evil, because he is unchangeably good, and can be no other.
Ver. 18. Of his own will begat he us] Gr. απεκυησε, brought he us forth, as a special instance of his free grace and fatherly goodness, Ephesians 1:4,5. The word properly signifies, He did the office of a mother to us, the bringing us into the light of life. The Hebrew word דלי also signifieth genuit, peperit, parturiit; et est proprium feminarum: quamvis eleganter de viro etiam et aliis rebus dicatur, to bring forth. (Marenus in Arca Noae.)
Ver. 19. Swift to hear] Reaching after that word of truth, the gospel, James 1:18, and drinking it in as the dry earth doth the dew of heaven. Life doth now enter into the soul at the ear, as at first death did, Genesis 3:19 Slow to speak] We read often, “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear”; but never, he that hath a tongue to speak, let him speak; for this we can do fast enough, without bidding. But hath not Nature taught us the same that the apostle here doth, by giving us two ears, and those open; and but one tongue, and that hedged in with teeth and lips? It is also tied and bound fast by the root, and hath for guides and counsellors the brain above and the heart beneath it. Hence your wisest men are most silent; for they know that as some gravel and mud passeth away with much water, so in many words there lacketh not sin. Slow to wrath] Slow to snuff at those that reprove you. [See Trapp on “Heb 13:22”] Rage not when touched, though to the quick.
Ver. 20. For the wrath of man] Unless it be as Moses’ and Christ’s anger was, pure and free from guile and gall, prompting us to pity and pray for the party, Exodus 32:32 Mr 3:5.
Ver. 21. All filthiness] Gr. ρυπαριαν, the stinking filth of a pestilent ulcer. Sin is the devil’s vomit, the soul’s excrement, the superfluity or garbage of naughtiness, περισσειαν, as it is here called by an allusion to the garbage of the sacrifices cast into the brook Kedron, that is, into the town ditch. Retentio excrementorum est parens morborum. Out with it, therefore. Some say that the word rendered filthiness, properly signifies “the filth under the nails and armholes”; but translated to the mind, it signifies covetousness, as sordes in Latin; but here any kind of sin, especially inward, as superfluity may note outward evils, that do superfluere, float at top. Receive with meekness] It is ill sowing in a storm: so a stormy spirit will not suffer the word to take place. The engrafted word] εμφυτος, engrafted upon the heart, as the scion upon the stock, or sowed in the soul, and mingled with faith, that it may bring forth fruit to God.
Ver. 22. And not hearers only] The Panotii in Scythia are said to have such large ears, as that therewith they cover their whole bodies. (Isidore.) Such are our hearers only. Deceiving your own souls] Either as by false reckoning or false reasoning; Gr. παραλογιζομενοι, putting paralogisms and fallacies upon yourselves. For hypocrites may easily deceive not others only, but themselves too; as a drunk en stage player, that in his drunkenness acting a king’s part, thinks himself a king indeed.
Ver. 23. His natural face] Gr. the face of his nativity, that wherewith he was born into the world. Pythagoras wished his scholars often to view themselves in a glass, that if they were well-favoured, they might likewise be well-conditioned; as if otherwise, they might make it up in virtue. “ Si mihi difficilis formam natura negavit, Ingenio formae damna rependo meae.” Ovid. Epist. The law is a crystal glass, wherein a man may soon see his spiritual deformities, and be advertised of his duty. [See Trapp on “Jas 1:25”]
Ver. 24. Straightway forgetteth] Naturalists make mention of a certain creature called cervarius, that though he be feeding never so hard and hungerly, if he cast but back his head, he forgets immediately the meat he was eating, and runs to look after new: the lynx is very sharp sighted, but also very forgetful; out of sight, out of mind straight.
Ver. 25. Whoso looketh into, &c.] παρακυψας, as into a glass, wishly and intently with the body bowed down. Get thee God’s law as a glass to toot in, saith Mr Bradford (Ser. of Repent.); so shalt thou see thy face foul arrayed, and so shamefully saucy, mangy, pocky, and scabbed, that thou canst not but be sorry at the contemplation thereof. It is said of the basilisk, that if he look into a glass, he presently dieth: sin doth. Physicians in some kind of unseemly convulsions wish the patient to view himself in a glass, which will help him to strive the more when he shall see his own deformity; so reflect, &c. The perfect law of liberty] The moral law, in opposition to the ceremonial, or so called because never is a man free indeed till out of a principle of love he keep God’s law. Not a forgetful hearer] Some are as hourglasses, no sooner turned up but running out immediately. Their souls are like filthy ponds, wherein fish die soon and frogs live long; profane jests are remembered, pious passages forgotten.
Ver. 26. Seem to be religious] There is a great deal of this seemingness now abroad: Aliud in titulo, aliud in pyxide. Verba tua Dei plane sunt, facta veto Diaboli, as one told Pope Innocent III: You speak like a God, but do like a devil; a fair professor, but a foul sinner. The form of religion is honos; the power onus. Many do but act it, play it: they do no more than assume it, as the angels did the dead bodies without a soul to animate them, or as Jeroboam’s wife put on her demure apparel when she was to go to the prophet. The mere seemer is a fraud, Job 13:16, imposturam facit et patitur: fumum vendidit, fumo peribit. He is like the painted grapes that deceived the living birds, saith one, or the golden apples with this motto, “No further than colour”; touch them and they vanish. But deceiveth] The heart first deceiveth us with colours, and when we are once doting after sin, then we join and deceive our hearts by fallacious reasonings.
Ver. 27. And widows] A vine whose root is uncovered thrives not; a widow whose covering of eyes is taken away, joys not.