Chapter VIII
Motives to evangelical obedience from this consideration, that it is the great
lign of the gospel to promote the life, and power, and practice of godliness.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own souls. JAMES I. 22.
Holiness of heart and life is urged upon us, as we stand in relation to the word of God, as written and engrafted in the heart, which holiness in other Scriptures is called,
* obeying from the heart that mould of doctrine, that is, answering it in the life. Here in the text it is called doing of the word. James spends most of this epistle upon it to urge it, and to shew the vanity of that religion which is destitute of it. Now by doing the word
in a large sense, not simply outward obedience is meant, but the whole
conformity to the will of God in the inward and outward man ; it is a con
formity to all that the word exhorts to. Now the word exhorts to faith, to
change of heart, to inward sanctification in the will, as well as to a godly conversation, and so all inward holy dispositions and motions are doing the
will of God. Thus the whole building from top to bottom, faith, and both inward and outward holiness, are called doing by Christ : Mat. vii. 24,
* Hearing my sayings, says Christ, and doing them, is to build on a rock,
namely, on himself. The reason is, because doing hath relation to com-
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mand. Now his command is to believe, 1 John v. 13. Faith is therefore
* the work of God, John vi. 29. It is indeed the work of all works, and so to increase in habitual grace, faith, knowledge, &c., is called doing
called
: 2 Peter i., If these things be in you, says he, ver. 8 ; but he says, ver. 10,
* If ye do these things. When Paul disputes, as we do against the papists, that no man is justified by works ; what ! doth he mean external works only ? No ; but he excludes from our justification our whole righteousness, both
root and branch, the inward as the root, and outward as the branches, because under works of the law is comprehended a complete conformity to
the law, and to what the law requires, and so he means hereby inward as
well as outward holiness. For when the law says, Do this, it therein com mands inward holiness in doing, as the root of doing, or the law is not
fulfilled. And thus when the law forbids any evil work, it forbids original sin as well as actual, for law binds the whole man.
1st. It is the end of the word to enjoin such entire holiness. 1 Tim.
* Now thejend of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. The apostle in that chapter reckons up many particulars, and concludes, as if he had not mentioned
i. 5,
all : If there be anything else contrary to sound doctrine, according to the
glorious gospel. He concludes in general, to involve all particulars not
enumerated, and he calls it the glorious gospel, as that whose glory would not love iniquity. Now, says he, the end of this commandment is love to God and man, out of a pure heart sanctified inwardly, and rightly directing
it, and for pure ends, all which unfeigned faith worketh in him that believes.
This, you see then, is the end of the command, and this is one end of
believing the gospel if in truth. And his scope is to compare this doctrine with Jewish fables and tradition, ver. 4, which consisted in speculations and disputes ; whereas all our doctrine, in every part of it, tends to practice; and this is the glory of our religion, that all the truths of it tend to holi ness and godliness, and are practical, or strengthened of us in practice. The incarnation of Christ, God manifested in the flesh and ascended to
glory, is termed the great mystery of godliness, and the whole doctrine
of the gospel is called the doctrine which is after godliness, Titus i. 1, 1 Tim. vi. 3. For that is it which it all tends to, and all truth is practical ; therefore John calls it doing the truth, 1 John i. 6, a strange phrase to a speculative philosopher, and walking in the truth, 2 John ver. 4. In the
epistle to Timothy, the apostle Paul had spoken of exhorting servants and masters to their respective duties ; for indeed every truth in the gospel,
savingly knSwn, will have influence into the actions of all relations, to make men conscientious in performing them, and holy in them. He instanceth but in one kind, to shew the like in all the rest, and to shew the glory of
all sound doctrine in that respect. The same apostle, Titus ii. 1, calls the
gospel sound doctrine, because it tends wholly to soundness and integrity, and to make the whole man such in all and every part of him, and to keep every one in their duties ; as aged men, ver. 2, aged women, ver. 3, young men, ver. 6, servants, ver. 9, 10 ; for the grace of God, namely, the gospel of grace, teacheth men all these duties. And because this is the professed end and scope of all the doctrine of Christianity, and of the word held forth
by the professors of it themselves and in the nature of the thing itself, therefore if men profess the truths of it in any kind, thereby differencing themselves from other men, and yet prove faulty in their lives, presently the word is blamed by others : Titus ii. 5, Let wives be obedient to their
husbands, that the word be not blamed ; or as you have it, 1 Tim. vi. 1,
CHAP. VIII.J IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 293
that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. Not only the name of God, but even his doctrine is mentioned ; and why ? But
because it is expected all his doctrine should tend to holiness, and to make
all relations (for of servants he there speaks) holy. And on the other side,
walking holily in all relations is said there to adorn the doctrine itself, as
well as to glorify God. Thus every defect and miscarriage lights on the
word and the truths professed, as being such truths which teach men other
wise ; and all holiness tends to glorify the word, as that which is the great
design of it. And indeed all holiness and obedience is but the holding
forth in the conversation that word of life which is in the heart, and changeth the audible word into a visible work. The saints are as lights in the
world, holding forth the word of life, Phil. ii. 15. As grace is but the word engrafted, so obedience is but the word held forth. When the apostle
says you shine as lights, he makes use of the same word used by the
Septuagint, Gen. i., for the heavenly lights ; for as the light that is in the
stars is ordained to be held forth to the world to quicken things below ; and
as the gathering together of that light, which was scattered by the first
day s creation over all the mass of matter, into those bright globes, the
subjects of it, was the work of the fourth day ; so God in the new creation
hath taken that light which is diffused through his word, and hath gathered
it into the hearts of his saints, to give light to a dark world. The word in
the heart is as the light seated in the stars, which is called lux, and the
shine of it, lumen, is the outward splendour of it ; and as light in the stars
is ordained for shining to others, so is the word to be held forth in obe
dience, that it might the more enlighten men. And unto this difference of
lux and lumen, light and shining of that light, the grace in the hearts of the
saints being as the light, and good works as the shine of it for which that
light is ordained, Christ s speech imports (and the apostle, as some think,
alludes to it), Ye are the light of the world : let your light so shine before
men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify God the author of
* may glorify your Father which is in heaven, Mat. v. 16. The like expression we have, James iii. 13, If any man be
that light, and that so you
endued with knowledge, let him shew out of a good conversation his works. A good conversation, full of good works, is the best demonstration of know
ledge ; it is a knowledge shewn forth, and therefore it hath the same
effects that preaching the word hath : 1 Pet. iii. 1, if not won by the
word, they may be won by their good conversation. So God tells us
< When they see my children, the work of my hands (God s workmanship in them created to good works), they that
also, Isa. xxix. 23, 24,
erred shall learn doctrine, shall come to understanding by it. The end of
the word is, not to fill men s brains with knowledge or speculations, but it
is altogether practical. It gives rules for ail actions of men, 2 Tim. iii. 17. The Scripture was written that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished to all good works. The Scripture is not like a philosopher s lec
ture, that discourseth of the heaven, and the earth, and nature of all
things ; but it is a school of action, that gives directions and rules for all
sorts of life, and motives enforcing them. God in his word hath conde
scended to give directions and prescriptions about the meanest, lowest
actions of man s life ; and to what end ? Because the religion it teacheth
: that you may hear and do, Deut. xxx. 12. And God
consists in doing
singleth out the ignorant and foolish of the world for his scholars, and hath
revealed this mystery unto babes, and concealed it from the prudent. Had
he intended only to teach matters of knowledge and speculation, he would
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have singled out the rarest wits of the world, and have poured out all sorts of knowledge to fill them ; but he hath stuffed his whole word with exhor
tations, directions to practice, and made all knowledge and mysteries in it but subserve to it ; and he hath scholars answerable, the foolish of the world. And why ? Because they are capable of doing his will as the
wisest. They can love, fear, and obey him as well as the wisest. It is
therefore practice he aimed at in all the word he hath delivered ; and he,
says Christ, Mat. xii. 50, is my mother, brother, and sister, that doth the will of my Father.
2dly. To do, and to be active in God s word and law, is the end and per fection of the reasonable creature, and of all the abilities God hath given man : Eccles. xii. 13, To keep the commandments is the whole of man. So it is in the original, which is more emphatical than to say, the whole
duty of man. It imports that this is the adequate end and perfection of man, all he serves for, all he was made for. Man s soul is an active spirit, made for doing and action, and never doth nor can lie still from that
instant it first began to think or desire. As the heart in the body sleep ing and waking never ceaseth motion, the soul much less, but the pulses of
its thoughts and desires are always beating. God himself is pure act : John
v. 17, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. And the nearer any creature comes in its degree and rank of being to God, the more active we
see it to be. Heavenly bodies that are in place nearer to God, the third heavens being his throne, how active are they ; they never cease moving
: the sun rejoiceth as a giant to run his race. Now the perfection of the acti
vity of all these lies in this, that they all are in their actions subject to a
law, an ordinance, a statute of God, which they keep ; and from this con
sideration concerning them and other fellow-creatures doth David raise himself and others unto obedience, Ps. cxix. 89-91. His scope is in that
psalm, and round about those verses, to shew that himself, a king, and all that are truly righteous, do live and act by the law and word ; and he con
firms himself and them in their obedience and allegiance, by what is com mon with them to the whole creation. God hath not (says he) given a
word, a law and ordinances, and institutions only to men, but his word is established in heaven, and all the stars observe his ordinances, and are his
servants ; and which is the wonder of it, they continue to this day according to his ordinance. These heavenly peers, from the sun to the least star, never transgressed the least constitution of his during three thousand years
(as this place gives testimony in David s time) nor during two thousand and an half to our times. There is not a star hath crept an hair s-breadth out of the stage and course God set it in to run ; the sun nor moon never
failed (but when God once or twice extraordinarily commanded them in Joshua and Hezekiah s time) of the minute appointed them for their going down. It knows its going down, Ps civ. 19, it moves, it winds about from one end of the heavens to the other, from south to north in a peer ;* and yet when it comes to the tropic, twenty-three degrees from the equi noctial, which is twice in the year, in summer when at the highest, and in winter when at lowest, it stirs not an hair s-breadth farther, but returns back again (as a servant or confined person that is limited in his walk and
pale), though it hath the whole heaven before it to expatiate in ; yea, and
though it walks about the world in a day. David gives the reason of it ; it
is God s servant. And the souls of men as they are more active and more noble, so they needed more rules and laws to regulate their actions. * Qu. year ? or perhaps pear ? a pear-shaped, or elliptical figure. ED.
CHAP. VIII.] IN THE HEART AND LIFE. 295
* The law of God is exceeding broad, says David, to sport and delight ourselves
The soul hath as spacious a course as the sun in the heavens.
therein, as the great waters are to the whales to play, and tumble up and down in them ; and yet this noble creature, which in activity exceeds all other of this world, is not lawless ; but its perfection lies in this, that all
its activity be exercised in the law and word of God, as the rule of it.
3dly. It is the end of inherent grace in the soul, and of our union with God, that we should be doers of the word, as needles are touched with a
loadstone, that they may point due north. Sin is a weakener, and yet we see how active it is. How mad are men of their sports ; they sleep not if
they have not done mischief, and commit uncleanness with greediness, Eph. iv. 19 ; and yet the life of sin is but deadness. But grace is life : You hath he quickened, Eph. ii. 1 ; it is strength
: Strength in the inward man, Eph. iv. ; a likeness to God, and therefore active :
* A workmanship created to good works which he before ordained we should walk in, Eph. ii. 10.
4thly. As an holy activity is the nature of grace, and the soul of it, so the perfection of it ; as it is the health of the body to act and stir according to the laws of nature, as to eat, drink, &c. Grace is called the perfect law of liberty, James i. 25, and it makes the man of God [perfect], so that he who continues in it is blessed in his deed : Prov. xvi. 17, He that keeps his way keeps his soul ; he that goes out of it is robbed of it. His fruit is
in holiness, and in keeping the commands is his great reward. Yea, the word itself, so far as you receive it into your hearts, is an active thing. If you have it but in your consciences, you cannot be quiet for it, it will put you upon doing, and it will accuse and excuse accordingly, as you obey or
* shews the work of the law written in their
disobey it: Rom. ii. 15, It
hearts, and it works there, and all truth would break out in practice, if men did not imprison it (so Rom. i. 18, the word imports). But if it have a place in the heart and the affections, it shews itself to be the word of life indeed, Philip, ii. 16, that would break out into the life. It is quick and powerful ; Thy word was as fire in my bones, says the prophet, Jer. xx. 9,
* and I was weary of forbearing, and could not stay. You carry fire in your bosoms, and fire will not be smothered.
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