02.01. Chapter 1 - Verse 26
James 1:26. But if any man among you seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own soul, this man’s religion is vain. The apostle having showed the blessedness of those which are doers of the word, lest any should seem to challenge a share in it to whom it doth not belong, he discovereth who are hearers only, and not doers of the word; men that do allow themselves in any known sin; and he instanceth in the evils of the tongue.
Quest. Before I open the words any further, I shall inquire why James doth pitch so much weight upon this one particular, it seeming so inconsiderable in itself, and it having so little respect to the context.
Ans. The reasons assigned in the answer will afford us so many notes.
Reas. 1. Because this is a chief part of our respect to our neighbour, and true love to God will be manifested by love to our neighbour. They do not usually detract from others whom God hath pardoned. He that saith, ‘Thou shalt love God,’ hath also said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour;’ though the object be diverse, yet the ground for obedience is the same; therefore the apostles usually bring this argument to unmask and discolour hypocritical persuasions; as 1 John 2:9, ‘He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even till now;’ so 1 John 3:17-18, ‘If he shut up his bowels from his brother, how dwelleth the love of God in him?’ How can it be imagined that those that are sensible of the love of God should be merciless towards others? So 1 John 4:20, ‘He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?’ The good and attractiveness that is in others is an object of the senses, and usually they make a strong impression. Well, then, do not flatter yourselves with duties of worship, in the neglect of duties of commerce.
Reas. 2. Because of the natural proneness that is in us to offend with the tongue: censuring is a pleasing sin, extremely compliant with nature. How propense the nature of man is to it I shall show you in the third chapter. Speech is the discovery of reason; corruption soon runneth out that way. Well, then, watch over it; the more natural corruptions are, the more care should we use to suppress them: Psalms 39:1, ‘I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue.’ There needeth special caution for that; and as you should watch, so you should pray, and desire God to watch over your watching: Psalms 141:3, ‘Set a watch before my mouth, keep the door of my lips.’ The awe of God is a great restraint.
Reas. 3. Because it was the sin of that age, as appeareth by his frequent dissuasives. See James 1:19; so James 3:1-18 per totum; so James 4:11, &c. The note is It is—an ill sign to be carried away with the evil of the times. It is a description of wicked men, Ephesians 2:2, that they ‘walked according to the course of this world;’ in the original, κατʼ αἰῶνα, according to the age, as the manner of the times went. So Romans 12:2, ‘Be not conformed to this world;’ τῷ αἰῶνι τουτῷ, ‘to this age;’ the meaning is, do not get into the garb of the times. So 2 Chronicles 17:4, ‘He walked after the trade of Israel.’ Many do so; they walk after the fashion and trade of the country and times wherein they live. Oh! consider, this is the sure note of a vain profession. Sins, when they grow common, become less odious; and therefore slight spirits commit them without remorse.
Reas. 4. Because it seemeth so small a sin, and having laid aside grosser sins, they did the more securely continue in the practice of it. They were not adulterers, drunkards; and therefore, flattering themselves with a show of holiness, they did the more freely censure and detract from others. Note, indulgence in the least sin cannot stand with grace. Your ‘religion is vain’ if you do not ‘refrain your tongue.’ They are miserably mistaken that hope to redeem their souls from the guilt of one sin by abstaining from the practice of another. Some are precise in small things, that they may be excused for non-observance of ‘the weightier things of the law;’ as the stomach, when it cannot digest solid food, naturally desireth to fill itself with water, or such light stuff as breedeth nought but wind. The Pharisees ‘tithed mint and cummin,’ &c. Others avoid grosser sins, and hope that it is an excuse for other corruptions that are not so odious. We all plead, ‘Is it not a little one, and my soul shall live?’
Reas. 5. Because this is usually the hypocrite’s sin. Hypocrites, of all others, are least able to bridle their tongue; and they that seem to be religious, are most free in censuring; partly because, being acquainted with the guilt of their own spirits, they are most apt to suspect others. Nazianzen saith of his father, οὔτε τὶ τῶν πονηρῶν αὐτὸς παραδέχη—he being of an innocent and candid soul, was less apt to think evil of others; and he giveth this reason, βραδὺ γὰρ εἰς ὑπόνοιαν κακοῦ, τὸ πρὸς κακὶαν δυσκίνητον—goodness is least suspicious, and plain hearts think all like themselves. Partly because they use to be much abroad that are so little at home. Censuring is a trick of the devil, to take off the care from their own hearts; and therefore, to excuse indignation against their own sins, their zeal is passionate in declaiming against the sins of others. Gracious hearts reflect most upon themselves; they do not seek what to reprove in others, but what to lament in themselves. Partly because they are not so meek and gentle as true Christians. When a man is sensible of his own failings, he is very tender in reflecting upon the weaknesses of others: Galatians 6:1, ‘Ye which are spiritual, restore him with meekness.’ They which are most spiritual are most tender to set a fallen Christian in joint again, καταρτίζετε. Partly because an hypocrite is a proud person: he would have every one to be his own foil, and therefore he blemisheth others. Diotrephes would be prating against John, because he ‘loved the pre-eminence,’ 3 John 1:9-10. Partly because hypocrites are best at their tongue, and therefore cannot bridle it. When men make religion a talk, their way is to blemish others; it is a piece of their religion. The Lord give you to discern into your own souls, whether these dispositions be in you or no.
Reas. 6. Because there is such a quick intercourse between the tongue and the heart, that the tongue is the best discovery of it; and therefore, saith the apostle, is ‘their religion vain,’ if they ‘cannot bridle their tongues.’ Seneca said, that the speech is the express image of the heart; and a greater than he said, ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.’ The quality of many men’s religion may be discerned by the intemperateness of their language; words are but the excrements and overflow of their wickedness. A man may soon discern of what religion they are, saith Pareus of the Jesuits, qui theologiam in caninam maledicentiam transferunt—that, like angry curs, cannot pass by one another without snarling.
These reasons being premised, the opening of the verse will be the more easy.
If any man seemeth to be religious.—To himself or others, by the practice of some few things by worship, and some duties of the first table. And bridleth not his tongue; that is, doth not abstain from the evils of the tongue, such as railing, reviling, censuring, and detraction, which latter, I suppose, is chiefly intended. But deceiveth his own soul.—It may be understood two ways:—(1.) Though he detract from others, yet he hath too good an opinion of himself. Self-love is the ground of hypocrisy; they do not search themselves, suspect themselves. Judas said last, ‘Master, is it I?’ They are too equal to themselves, though too severe to others. (2.) The other sense may be, he cometh at length to flatter himself, to deceive his own soul, as well as to seem to others. This mans religion is vain; that is, either he maketh his graces and the good things that are in him to be vain and unprofitable, or rather, his religion is pretended to no purpose.
Obs. 1. Besides what I have observed already from hence, you may collect from that seemeth to be religious, there may be religion only in pretence and seeming. So 1 Corinthians 8:2, ‘If any man among you thinketh he knoweth anything;’ that is, pleaseth, flattereth himself in the conceit of his knowledge. So Galatians 6:3, ‘If any man think him self to be something, when he is nothing;’ that proudly overweeneth his own worth. Well, then, rest not in a ‘form of godliness,’ 2 Timothy 3:5, or in a ‘form of knowledge,’ Romans 2:20; in a naked speculation, or in a varnished profession. These things may carry a fair show and semblance in the world, but are of no account before God. Still put yourselves to this question, Am I yet beyond a hypocrite? Be what you would seem to be.1 1 ‘Quod videri vis, illud esse debes.’
Obs. 2. From that bridleth not his tongue. That it is a great part of religion to bridle the tongue. There are several evils that must be restrained—lying, swearing, cursing, railing, ribaldry. I shall speak of these five:—(1.) Lying. Beware of that, with all the kinds, equivocation and dissimulation. Truth is the ground of commerce. It is a sin destructive to the good of mankind. The devil, that is, the accuser, he is called the liar too. Oh! do not cry up a report of others, till you have sifted it. ‘Report, say they, and we will report it,’ Jeremiah 20:10; that is, bring us anything, and we will blaze it; and so a little water is evaporated into a great deal of steam and smoke. Crassa negligentia dolus est, say the civilians—if you do not try it, you are guilty. (2.) Cursing. There is corruption at the heart when the tongue is so blistered. It is observable that when God would have the curses pronounced upon Mount Ebal, he employed the servile tribes about it, only Reuben was amongst them, that prostituted his father’s bed. There is seldom any blessing for them that use themselves to curses. (3.) Swearing. It is said the righteous ‘feareth an oath,’ Ecclesiastes 9:2. Not only those false-mouthed oaths, but minced oaths, and vain speeches, and peremptory asseverations in the slightest matters. Men that lavish away deep asseverations upon every trifle are, if the matter be anything more serious, put upon that which should be the last reserve, an oath. (4.) Railing. I take it not only for the gross railing, but privy defamations and whisperings to the prejudice of others, meddling with other men’s matters; as the apostles often speak against these, so commending with a but, as the scripture saith of Naaman, 2 Kings 5:1, ‘A great man, an honourable man, a mighty man, but he was a leper.’ They say he is thus and thus, but, &c.; and so wound while they pretend to kiss. They make their praise but a preface to their reproach, which is but as an archer that draweth back his hand, that the arrow may fly with the more force. It was a great praise that Jerome gave Asella, Habebat silentium loquens—she was silent when she spake; for she spake only of religious and necessary things, not meddling with others’ persons or fame. (5.) Ribaldry. Filthy ‘rotten comunication,’ Colossians 3:8; σάπος λόγος, ‘filthy speaking,’ Ephesians 5:4. Many travel under the burthen of a profane jest. Oh! the filthy breath that cometh out of their mouths! All foolish jesting cometh under this head. Aristotle’s virtue, εὐτραπελία, is a sin with Paul, Ephesians 5:4.
Obs. 3. From that but deceiveth himself. Hypocrites come at length to deceive themselves. A liar, by repeating his lies, beginneth to believe them. Natural conscience is pacified with a show. It is just with God to punish deceit with deceit. And as they cozen others, so they deceive their own souls; as the carver fell in love with an image of his own making, and thought it living. Hypocrisy endeth in hardness and gross blindness, and by custom men dote upon that which at first they knew was but paint and varnish; as if God would be as easily mocked and deceived as men.
Obs. 4. From that this man’s religion is vain. Pretended religion will be fruitless: shows are nullities with God. Of all things, a man cannot endure that his serious actions shall be in vain and to no purpose; for there usually hope is more strong, and therefore the disappointment must needs be the more vexatious. This will be no small part of your torment in hell, to think that all your profession is come to this. I prophesied in Christ’s name, in his name I wrought miracles. I conferred, repeated, closed with the better side, to my loss and disadvantage, and yet am I now in hell. Oh! how sad will such discourses be in the place of torment! Oh! consider, the greater rise your hope had, the more bruising and crushing will your fall be, as a stone that falleth from a high place is broken to powder.