02.01. Chapter 1 - Verse 21

James 1:21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. The apostle having formerly spoken of the power of the word, and from thence inferred that it should be heard willingly, and without a cavilling or contradicting spirit, and to that purpose having shown the evil of wrath, he again enforceth the main exhortation of laying aside all wrathful and exulcerated affections, that they might be fitter to entertain the word with an honest and meek heart, for their comfort and salvation. There is in the verse a duty, and that is, ‘receiving of the word;’ the help to it, and that is, ‘laying aside’ evil frames of spirit. Then there is the manner how this duty is to be performed, ‘with meekness;’ then the next end, and that is ‘ingrafting the word;’ then the last end, which is propounded by way of motive, ‘which is able to save your souls.’

Wherefore, that is, because wrath is such an hindrance to the righteousness which God requireth; or it may be referred to the whole context, upon all these considerations.

Lay apart, ἀποθέμενοι.—The force of the word implieth we should put it off as an unclean rag or worn garment: the same metaphor is used by the apostle Paul: Ephesians 4:22, ‘That ye put off the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts;’ and Colossians 3:8, in a very like case, ‘But now put off these, anger, malice, wrath, blasphemy, filthy communication.’

All filtliiness, πᾶσαν ῥυπαρίαν.—The word is sometimes put for the filthiness of ulcers, and for the nastiness and filth of the body through sweating, and is here put to stir up the greater abomination against sin, which is elsewhere called ‘the filth of the flesh,’ 1 Peter 3:21. Some suppose the apostle intendeth those lusts which are most beastly, and have greatest turpitude in them; but either the sense must be more general to imply all sin, or more particularly restrained to filthy and evil speaking, or else it will not so well suit with the context. And superfluity of naughtiness, τὰν περισσείαν κακίας.—It may be rendered ‘the overflowing of malice;’ and so it noteth scoffs, and railings, and evil speakings, which are the superfluity of that in which everything is superfluous; and these are specified in a parallel place of the apostle Peter, 1 Peter 2:1, to which James might allude, writing after him. Beza rendereth it ‘the excrement of wickedness.’ Some make it an allusion to the garbage of the sacrifices in the brook Kedron. Most take it generally for that abundance of evil and filthiness that is in the heart of man. And receive.—A word often used for the appropriation of the word, and admitting the power of it into our hearts. Receive, that is, give it more way to come to you; make more room for it in your hearts. Thus it is charged upon them, 2 Thessalonians 2:10, that ‘they received not the love of the truth.’ So it is said of the natural man, οὐ δέχεται, ‘He receiveth not the things of God.’ This is a notion so proper to this matter, that the formal act of faith is expressed by it, John 1:12, ‘To as many as received him,’ &c. With meekness; that is, with a teachable mind, with a modest, submissive spirit. The ingrafted word, λόγον ἔμφυτον.—Some refer it to reason, others to Christ, but with much absurdity; for this word noteth the end and fruit of hearing, that the word may be planted in us; and the apostle showeth that, by the industry of the apostles, the word was not only propounded to them, but rooted in them by faith. The like metaphor is elsewhere used: ‘I have planted,’ 1 Corinthians 3:6, that is, God by his means; and the metaphor is continued, Colossians 1:6, λόγος καρποφορούμενος, a phrase that noteth the flourishing and growing of the word after the planting of it in the soul. Which is able to save; that is, instrumentally, as it is accompanied with the divine grace; for the gospel is ‘the power of God unto salvation,’ Romans 1:16. Your souls; that is, yourselves, bodies and souls. Salvation is attributed to the soul by way of eminency, the principal part being put for the whole: Romans 13:1, ‘Let every soul be subject to the higher powers,’ that is, every person. So in other places the same manner of expression is used in this very matter: 1 Peter 1:9, ‘The end of your faith, the salvation of your souls;’ so Matthew 16:26, ‘Lose his own soul,’ that is, himself. In such forms of speech the body is not excluded, because it always followeth the state of the soul. The notes are many: I shall be the briefer.

Obs. 1. From that laying aside. Before we come to the word there must be preparation. They that look for the bridegroom had need trim up their lamps. The instrument must be tuned ere it can make melody. Hash entering upon duties is seldom successful. God may meet us unawares, such is his mercy; but it is a great adventure. The people were to wash their clothes when they went to hear the law, Exodus 19:10. Something there must be done to prepare and fix the heart to seek the Lord, 2 Chronicles 20:19; Psalms 56:8. Solomon saith, ‘Take heed to thy foot when thou goest into the house of God,’ Ecclesiastes 5:1. The heathens had one in their temples to remember them that came to worship of their work; he was to cry, Hoc age. Many come to hear, but they do not consider the weight and importance of the duty. Christ saith, Luke 8:18, ‘Take heed how you hear.’ It were well there were such a sound in men’s ears in the times of their approaches to God; some to cry to them, ‘Oh, take heed how you hear.’ It is good to be ‘swift to hear,’ but not to be rash and inconsiderate. Do not make such haste as to forget to take God along with you. You must begin duties with duties.¹ Special duties require a special setting apart of the heart for God, but all require something. Inconsiderate addresses are always fruitless. We come on, and go off, and there is all. We do not come with expectation, and go without satisfaction. Well, then, come with more advised care when you come to wait upon God; look to your feet, and come prepared. Let me speak one word by way of caution, and another by way of direction.

¹ ‘Iter ad pietatem est intra pietatem.’

1. By way of caution. (1.) Do not exclude God out of your preparations. Usually men mistake in this matter, and hope by their own care to work themselves into a fitness of spirit. Preparation consisteth much in laying aside evil frames; and before you lay aside other evil frames, lay aside self-confidence: Proverbs 16:1, ‘The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord;’ the very dispositions and motions of the spirit are from him. It is a wrong to that text to expound it so as if the preparation were from man and the success from God; both are from the Lord. God’s children have entered comfortably upon duties, when they have seen God in their preparations: Psalms 71:16, ‘I will go forth in the strength of God;’ that is, to the duty of praise, as is clear in the context. (2.) Though you cannot get your hearts into such a frame as you do desire, trust God: ‘Faith is the evidence of things not seen,’ Hebrews 11:1; and that help which is absent to sense and feeling may be present to faith. A bell may be long in rising, but it ringeth loud when it is once up. You do not know how God may come in. The eunuch read, and understood not, and God sent him an interpreter, Acts 8:1-40. When you begin duty you are dead and indisposed; but you do not know with what sensible approaches of his grace and power he may visit you ere it be over. It is not good to neglect duty out of discouragements; this were to commit one sin to excuse another: ‘Say not, I am a child,’ Jeremiah 1:6; ‘I am slow of lips.’ ‘Who made the mouth?’ Exodus 4:10-11.

2. By way of direction. I cannot go out into all the severals of preparation, how the heart must be purged, faith exercised, repentance renewed, wants and weaknesses reviewed, God’s glory considered, the nature, grounds, and ends of the ordinances weighed in our thoughts. Only, in the general, so much preparation there must be as will make the heart reverent. God will be served with a joy mixed with trembling: the heart is never right in worship till it be possessed with an awe of God: ‘How dreadful is this place!’ Genesis 28:17. And again, such preparation as will settle the bent of the spirit heavenward. It is said somewhere, ‘They set themselves to seek the Lord;’ and David saith, Psalms 57:7, ‘My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed;’ that is, composed to a heavenly and holy frame. And again, such preparation as will make you come humble and hungry. Grace is usually given to the desiring soul: ‘He hath filled the hungry with good things,’ Luke 1:53. Again, such as erecteth and raiseth the heart into a posture of expectation. It is often said, ‘Be it to thee according to thy faith.’ They that look for nothing find nothing; Christ’s greater things are for those that believe, John 1:50.

Obs. 2. Christian preparation consists most in laying aside and dispossessing evil frames. Weeds must be rooted out before the ground is fit to receive the seed: ‘Plough up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns,’ Jeremiah 4:3. There is an unsuitableness between a filthy spirit and the pure holy word; and therefore they that will not leave their accustomed sins are unfit hearers. The matter must be prepared ere it can receive the form. Some translate Paul’s δοκιμαζέτω ἑαυτὸν, 1 Corinthians 11:28, ‘Let him purge himself,’ get away his dross and corruption. All this showeth the need of renewing repentance before the hearing the word; that sin being dispossessed, there may be room for the entrance of grace. Noxious weeds are apt to grow again in the best minds; therefore, as the leper under the law was still to keep his hair shaven, Leviticus 14:1-57, so should we cut and shave, that though the roots of sin remain, yet they may not grow and sprout. There is an extraordinary vanity in some men, that will lay aside their sins before some solemn duties, but with a purpose to return to the folly of them; as they fable the serpent layeth aside his poison when he goeth to drink. They say to their lusts as Abraham to his servants, ‘Tarry you here, for I must go yonder and worship; I will come again to you,’ Genesis 22:5. They do not take an everlasting farewell of their sins. But, however, they are wiser than those that come reeking from their sins into God’s presence: this is to dare him to his face. The Jews are chidden for praying with their ‘hands full of blood,’ Isaiah 1:15. They came boldly, before they had been humbled for their oppression: ‘If her father had spat in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?’ Numbers 12:14. After great rebellions there should be a solemn humbling and purging. What can men that come in their sins expect from God? Their state confuteth their worship. God will have nothing to do with them, and he marvelleth they should have anything to do with him. He hath nothing to do with them: Job 8:20, ‘He will not help the evil doers;’ in the original, ‘He will not take the wicked by the hand;’ and he wondereth you should have anything to do with him: ‘What hast thou to do to take my words into thy mouth?’ Psalms 50:16.

Obs. 3. From the word laying aside, ἀποθέμενοι. Put it off as a rotten and filthy garment. Sin must be left with an utter detestation: Isaiah 30:22, ‘Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say, Get ye hence.’ Sin is often expressed by abomination; it is so to God, it should be so to men. Faint resistance argueth some inclination of the mind to it. Here affections should be drawn out to their height; grief should become contrition, anger should be heightened into rage and indignation, and shame should be turned into confusion; no displeasure can be strong and keen enough for sin.

Obs. 4. From that all. We must not lay aside sin in part only, but all sin. So in Peter, the particle is universal, πᾶσαν κακίαν, 1 Peter 2:1, ‘all malice:’ and David saith, ‘I hate every false way,’ Psalms 119:1-176. True hatred is εἰς τὰ γένη, to the whole kind. When we hate sin as sin, we hate all sin. The heart is most sincere when the hatred is general. The least sin is dangerous, and in its own nature deadly and destructive. Cæsar was stabbed with bodkins. We read of some that have been devoured of wild beasts, lions and bears; but of others that have been eaten up of vermin, mice, or lice. Pope Adrian was choked with a gnat. The least sins may undo you. You know what Christ speaketh of a little leaven. Do not neglect the least sins, or excuse yourselves in any Rimmon. Carry out yourselves against all known sins, and pray as he, Job 34:32, ‘That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do so no more.’

Obs. 5. From that word filthiness. Sin is filthiness; it sullieth the glory and beauty of the soul, defaceth the image of God. This expression is often used, ‘Filthiness of flesh and spirit,’ 2 Corinthians 7:1, where not only gross wickedness, such as proceedeth from fleshly and brutish lusts, is called filthiness, but such as is more spiritual, unbelief, heresy, or misbelief, &c., nay, original corruption is called so: Job 14:4, ‘Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?’ so Job 15:14, ‘How can man be clean?’ Nay, things glorious in the eyes of men. Duties they are called dung, because of the iniquity that is found in them: Malachi 2:3, ‘I will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts.’ So it was in God’s eyes. The Spirit of God everywhere useth comparisons taken from things that are most odious, that our hearts may be wrought into the greater detestation of sin. Certainly they are much mistaken that think sin an ornament, when the Spirit of God calleth it dung and excrement. But more especially I find three sins called filthiness in scripture:—(1.) Covetousness, because it debaseth the spirit of man, and maketh him stoop to such indecencies as are beneath humanity; so it is said, ‘filthy lucre,’ 1 Peter 5:2. (2.) Lust, which in scripture dialect is called filthiness, or the sin of uncleanness, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, because it maketh a man to subject or submit his desires to the beasts’ happiness, which is sensual pleasures. (3.) In this place, anger and malice is called filthiness. We please ourselves in it, but it is but filthiness; it is brutish to yield to our rage and the turbulent agitation of our spirits, and not to be able to withstand a provocation; it is worse than poison in toads or asps, or what may be conceived to be most filthy in the creatures; poison in them doth hurt others, it cannot hurt themselves; anger may not hurt others, it cannot choose but hurt us. Well, then, all that hath been said is an engagement to us to resist sin, to detest it as a defilement; it will darken the glory of our natures. There are some ‘spots that are not as the spots of God’s children,’ Deuteronomy 32:5. Oh! let us get rid of these ‘filthy garments,’ Zechariah 3:4-5, and desire change of raiment, the righteousness of Christ. Ay! but there are some lesser sins that are spots too: ‘The garment spotted by the flesh,’ Jude 1:23; unseemly words are called ‘filthiness,’ Ephesians 5:4, and duties ‘dung.’

Obs. 6. From that superfluity of wickedness. That there is abundance of wickedness to be purged out of the heart of man. Such a fulness as runneth over, a deluge of sin: Genesis 6:5, ‘All the imaginations of the heart are evil, only evil, and that continually;’ it runneth out into every thought, into every desire, into every purpose. As there is saltness in every drop of the sea, and bitterness in every branch of wormwood, so sin in everything that is framed within the soul. Whatever an unclean person touched, though it were holy flesh, it was unclean; so all our actions are poisoned with it. Daniel 9:27, we read of ‘the overspreading of abominations;’ and David saith, Psalms 19:1-14, ‘They are all become vile, and gone out of the way;’ all, and all over. In the understanding there are filthy thoughts and purposes; there sin beginneth: fish stink first at the head. In the will filthy motions; the affections mingle with filthy objects. The memory, that should be like the ark, the chest of the law, retaineth, like the grate of a sink, nothing but mud and filthiness. The conscience is defiled and stained with the impurities of our lives; the members are but instruments of filthiness. A rolling eye provoketh a wanton fancy, and stirreth up unclean glances: 2 Peter 2:14, ‘Having eyes full of adultery;’ in the original, μοιχαλίδος, ‘full of the adulteress.’ The tongue bewrayeth the rottenness of the heart in filthy speaking. Oh! what cause we have to bless God that there is ‘a fountain opened for uncleanness,’ Zechariah 13:1. Certainly conversion is not an easy work, there is such a mass of corruption to be laid aside.

Obs. 7. From that receive. Our duty in hearing the word is to receive it. See places in the exposition. In the word there is the hand of God’s bounty, reaching out comfort and counsel to us; and there must be the hand of faith to receive it. In receiving there is an act of the understanding, in apprehending the truth and musing upon it. So Christ saith, Luke 9:44, ‘Let these sayings sink down into your minds.’ Let them not float in the fancy, but enter upon the heart, as Solomon speaketh of wisdom’s entering into the heart, Proverbs 2:10. And there is an act of faith, the crediting and believing faculty is stirred up to entertain it. So the apostle saith, ‘mingled with faith in the hearing,’ Hebrews 4:2, that is, mingled with our heart, or closely applied to our hearts. And there is an act of the will and affections to embrace and lodge it in the soul, which is called somewhere ‘a receiving the truth in love,’ when we make room for it, that carnal affections and prejudices may not vomit and throw it up again. Christ complaineth somewhere that ‘his word had no place in them,’ οὐ χώραν ἔχει ἐν ὑμῖν, it cannot find any room, or be safely lodged in you; but, like a hot morsel or queasy bit, it was soon given up again.

Obs. 8. The word must be received with all meekness. Christ was anointed to preach glad tidings to the meek, Isaiah 61:1. They have most right in the gospel. The main business will be to show what this meekness is. Consider its opposites. Since the fall graces are best known by their contraries. It excludeth three things:—(1.) A wrathful fierceness, by which men rise in a rage against the word. When they are admonished, they revile. Deep conviction provoketh many times fierce opposition: Jeremiah 6:10, ‘The word of the Lord is to them a reproach.’ They think the minister raileth when he doth but discover their guilt to them. (2.) A proud stubbornness, when men are resolved to hold their own; and though the premises fall before the word, yet they maintain the conclusion: Jeremiah 2:25, ‘Refrain thy foot from bareness, and thy throat from thirst;’ that is, why will you trot to Egypt for help, you will get nothing but bareness and thirst; but they said, ‘Strangers have we loved, and them will we follow;’ that is, Say what thou wilt, we will take our own way and course. So Jeremiah 44:16-17, ‘We will not hearken to thee, but will certainly do whatsoever goeth out of our own mouth.’ Men scorn to strike sail before the truth, and though they cannot maintain an opposition, yet they will continue it. (3.) A contentious wrangling, which is found in men of an unsober wit, that scorn to captivate the pride of reason, and therefore stick to every shift. The psalmist saith, Psalms 25:8-9, ‘He will teach sinners the way. The meek he will guide in judgment; the meek he will teach his way.’ Of all sinners, God taketh the meek sinner for his scholar. There is difficulty enough in the scriptures to harden the obstinate. Camero² observeth that the scriptures are so penned that they that have a mind to know may know; and they that have a mind to wrangle may take occasion enough of offence, and justly perish by the rebellion of their own reason; for, saith he, God never meant to satisfy hominibus prœfracti ingenii, men of a stubborn and perverse wit. And Tertullian³ had observed the same long before him: that God had so disposed the scriptures, that they that will not be satisfied might be hardened. Certain we are that our Saviour Christ saith, Mark 4:11-12, that ‘these things are done in parables, that seeing they might not see, nor perceive and understand;’ that is, for a just punishment of wilful blindness and hardness, that those that would not see might not see. So elsewhere our Lord saith, that ‘he that will do the will of God shall know what doctrine is of God,’ John 7:17. When the heart is meekened to obey a truth, the mind is soon opened to conceive of it.

² Camer, lib. de notis verbi Dei.

³ ‘Non periclitor dicere ipsas scripturas ita dispositas esse, ut materiam subministrarent hæreticis.’—Tertul.

Secondly, My next work is to show what it includeth. (1.) Humility and brokenness of spirit. There must be insection before insition, meekness before ingrafting. Gospel revivings are for the contrite heart, Isaiah 57:15. The broken heart is not only a tamed heart, but a tender heart, and then the least touch of the word is felt: ‘Those that tremble at my word,’ Isaiah 66:2. (2.) Teachableness and tractableness of spirit. There is an ingenuous as well as a culpable facility: ‘The wisdom that is from above is gentle, and easy to be entreated,’ James 3:17. It is good to get a tractable frame. The servants of God come with a mind to obey; they do but wait for the discovery of their duty: Acts 10:33, ‘We are all here present before God, to hear the things that are commanded thee of God.’ They came not with a mind to dispute, but practise. Oh! consider, perverse opposition will be your own ruin. It is said, Luke 7:30, ‘They rejected the counsel of God,’ but it was ‘against themselves;’ that is, to their own loss. So Acts 13:46, ‘Ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.’ Disputing against the word, it is a judging yourselves; it is as if, in effect, you should say, I care not for God, nor all the tenders of grace and glory that he maketh to me.

Obs. 9. The word must not only be apprehended by us, but planted in us. It is God’s promise: Jeremiah 31:33, ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and write them in their inward parts;’ that is, he will enlighten our minds to the understanding of his will, and frame our hearts and affections to the obedience of it, so that we shall not only know duty, but have an inclination to it, which is the true ingrafting of the word. Then ‘the root of the matter is within us,’ Job 19:28; that is, the comfort of God’s promises rooted in the heart. So 1 John 3:9, ‘His seed abideth in him;’ that is, the seed of the word planted in the heart. Look to it, then, that the word be ingrafted in you, that it do not fall like seed on the stony ground, so as it cannot take root. You will know it thus: (1.) If it be ingrafted, it will be λόγος καρποφορούμενος, ‘a fruitful word,’ Colossians 1:6; it will spring up in your conversation; the ‘stalk of wickedness,’ Ezekiel 7:11, will not grow so much as the word. (2.) The graft draweth all the sap of the stock to itself. All your affections, purposes, cares, thoughts, will serve the word: Romans 6:17, εἰς ὅν παρεδόθητε τύπον διδαχῆς. They were delivered over into the stamp and mould of the word that was delivered to them. All affections and motions of the spirit are cast into the mould of religion.

Obs. 10. That the word in God’s hand is an instrument to save our souls. It is sometimes called ‘the word of truth,’ at other times, ‘the word of life;’ the one noteth the quality of it, the other the fruit of it. It is called ‘the power of God,’ Romans 1:16, and ‘the arm of the Lord:’ Isaiah 53:1, ‘Who hath believed our report? to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?’ By our report God’s arm is conveyed into the soul. The use to which God hath deputed the word should beget a reverence to it. The gospel is a saving word; let us not despise the simplicity of it. Gospel truths should not be too plain for our mouths, or too stale for your ears. ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel,’ saith the apostle, ‘for it is the power of God to salvation.’

Obs. 11. That the main care of a Christian should be to save his soul. This is propounded as an argument why we should hear the word; it will save your souls. Usually our greatest care is to gratify the body. Solomon saith, ‘All a man’s labour is for the mouth;’ that is, to support the body in a decent state. Oh! but consider this is but the worser part; and who would trim the scabbard and let the sword rust? Man is in part an angel, and in part a beast. Why should we please the beast in us, rather than the angel? In short, your greatest fear should be for the soul, and your greatest care should be for the soul. Your greatest fear: Matthew 10:28, ‘Fear not them that can destroy the body, but fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire.’ There is a double argument. The body is but the worser part, and the body is alone; but on the other side, the soul is the more noble part, and the state of the body dependeth upon the well or ill being of the soul: he is ‘able to cast both soul and body,’ &c., and therefore it is the greatest imprudence in the world, out of a fear of the body, to betray the soul. So your greatest care, riches and splendour in the world, these are the conveniences of the body, and what good will they do you, when you come to be laid in the cold silent grave? Matthew 16:26, ‘What profit hath a man, if he win the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ It is but a sorry exchange that, to hazard the eternal welfare of the soul for a short fruition of the world. So Job 27:8, ‘What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh his soul?’ There is many a carnal man that pursueth the world with a fruitless and vain attempt; they ‘rise early, go to bed late, eat the bread of sorrows;’ yet all will not do. But suppose they have gained and taken the prey in hunting, yet what will it profit him when body and soul must part, and though the body be decked, yet the soul must go into misery and darkness, without any furniture and provision for another life? what hope will his gain minister to him? Oh! that we were wise to consider these things, that we would make it our work to provide for the soul, to clothe the soul for another world, that we would wait upon God in the word, that our souls may be furnished with every spiritual and heavenly excellency, that we may not be ‘found naked,’ saith the apostle, 2 Corinthians 5:3.

Obs. 12. That they that have received the word must receive it again: though it were ingrafted in them, yet receive it that it may save your souls. God hath deputed it to be a means not only of regeneration, but salvation; and therefore, till we come to heaven, we must use this help. They that live above ordinances, do not live at all, spiritually, graciously. Painted fire needeth no fuel. The word, though it be an immortal seed, yet needeth constant care and watering. But of this before.