THE ARGUMENT That the authority of this Epistle hath been questioned by some anciently, appears plainly by Eusebius and Jerome, who speak suspiciously of it; and that it hath been denied by some more lately, is no less clear (to say nothing of Cajetan and Erasmus) in Luther, who (though in his…

James, the son of Alpheus and brother of Jude, called likewise the brother of the Lord, Gal. 1:19. A servant; not only by creation, as all the creatures are, Ps. 119:91, or by redemption, as all believers are, but by special commission in the office of an apostle; see Gal. 1:10, Phil. 1:1, 2 Pet.

My brethren; both as being of the same nation and the same religion; so he calls them, that the kindness of his compellation might sweeten his exhortations. Count it; esteem it so by a spiritual judgment, though the flesh judge otherwise. All joy; matter of the chiefest joy, viz. spiritual.

Knowing this; considering. That the trying of your faith; the reason why he called afflictions temptations, as well as why believers should count it all joy to fall into them, viz.

But let patience have her perfect work; i.e. effect: q.d. Let it have its full efficacy in you, both in making you absolutely subject to God’s will, and constant to the end under all your sufferings.

If any of you lack wisdom; if, doth not imply a doubt, but supposeth something which they themselves would grant; viz. that they did lack wisdom, either in whole or in part. It is as if he had said, Since, or seeing, ye lack, &c. See the like, Mal. 1:6.

But let him ask in faith; with confidence of God’s hearing, grounded on the Divine attributes and promises, Mark 11:24, 1 John 5:14. Nothing wavering; either not disputing God’s power or promise; or rather, not doubting, not slandering through unbelief, Rom.

For let not that man; he that wavers, in opposition to him that asks in faith: all doubting doth not hinder the hearing of prayer, but that which excludes faith, Mark 9:23–24. Think; vainly conceit, or persuade himself.

A double minded man; either; 1. A hypocrite, who is said to have a double heart, Ps. 12:2. Or rather; 2. He that is of a doubtful mind, wavering, and fluctuating with contrary motions, sometimes of one mind, sometimes of another; sometimes hoping, sometimes desponding.

Let the brother; i.e. the believer, (for to such he writes), all believers, or saints, being brethren in Christ, 1 Cor. 16:20, 1 Thess. 5:26, 1 Tim. 6:2.

But the rich; viz. broher, he that is in a high, honourable, or plentiful condition in the world. In that he is made low; supply from the former verse, let him rejoice in that he is made low; not as to his outward state, (for he is supposed to be rich still), but his inward disposition and frame of…

With a burning heat; or, the scorching east wind, which in those countries was wont to rise with the sun, Jonah 4:8. So also shall the rich man fade away; either shall is here put for may, the future tense for the potential mood; and then the apostle doth not so much declare what always certainly…

Blessed is the man theft endureth; holds out against the assaults and impressions of temptations with patience and constancy, James 5:11, Heb. 12:5, Heb. 12:7. Temptations; afflictions, as James 1:2.

Let no man say; neither with his mouth, nor so much as in his heart, blasphemously cast the blame of his sins upon God, to clear himself. When he is tempted; so stirred up to sin as to be drawn to it. I am tempted of God; either solicited by God to sin, or enforced to it.

He shows the great cause of sin; that lust hath a greater hand in it than either the devil or his instruments, who cannot make us sin without ourselves: they sometimes tempt, and do not prevail; but when lust tempts, it always prevails, either in whole or in part, it being a degree of sin to be our…

Then when lust hath conceived; lust (compared to a harlot) may be said to conceive, when the heart is pleased with the motion, and yields some consent to it. It bringeth forth sin; the birth of sin may be the complete consent of the will to it, or the outward act of it.

Viz. in imputing your sins to God, and saying, that when you are tempted you are tempted of him.

Every good gift; Greek, giving; and so it may be distinct from gift in the next clause; to show, that whereas men sometimes give good gifts in all evil way, and with an evil mind, God’s giving, as well as gift, is always good; and therefore when we receive any thing of him, we should look not only…

Of his own will; out of his mere good pleasure, as the original cause, and not moved to it by any dignity or merit in us, Eph. 1:9, 2 Tim. 1:9. Begat he us; by a spiritual generation, whereby we are new born, and are made partakers of a Divine nature, John 1:13, 1 Pet. 1:3, 1 Pet. 1:23.

Let every man be swift to hear; prompt and ready to hear God speaking in the word of truth, before mentioned. Slow to speak; either silently and submissively hear the word, or speak not rashly and precipitately of the things of faith, but be well furnished yourselves with spiritual knowledge, ere…

Wherefore lay apart; not only restrain it, and keep it in; but put off, and throw it away as a filthy rag, Isa. 30:22, Eph. 4:22, Col. 3:8, 1 Pet. 2:1. All, of every kind. Filthiness; or, sordidness; a metaphor borrowed from the filth of the body, 1 Pet.

But be ye doers of the word; the same as doers of the work, James 1:25, namely, which the word prescribes; q.d. Receive the word by faith into your hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in your lives: see Luke 11:28, John 13:17.

He is like unto a man: the Greek word here used, properly signifies the sex, not the species, but is indifferently used by this apostle with the other, as James 1:12, James 1:20, so that by a man looking at his face in a glass, is meant any man or woman.

The remembrance of what his face is vanisheth as soon as his eye is off the glass; he remembers not the spots he saw in his face, to wipe them off. So he that sees the blemishes of his soul in the glass of the word, and doth not remember them to do them away, looks in that glass (i.e.

But whose looketh into; viz. intently and earnestly, searching diligently into the mind of God. The word signifies a bowing down of the head to look into a thing; and is used of the disciples’ looking into Christ’s sepulchre, Luke 24:12, John 20:5, 1 Pet.

If any man among you seem to be religious; seems to others, or rather to himself; thinks himself religious, because cause of his hearing and outward worship: thus the word rendered seems is often taken, 1 Cor. 3:18, 1 Cor. 8:2, 1 Cor. 14:37, Gal. 6:3.

Pure religion; true, sincere, genuine, Matt. 5:8, John 15:3. And undefiled; this seems to reflect upon the hypocritical Jews, whose religion consisted so much in external observances, and keeping themselves from ceremonial defilements, when yet they were sullied with so many moral ones, James 1:14,…