and courage often appear in us and soon fail, he therefore requires perseverance. "Real patience," he says, "is that which endures to the end." For work here means the effort, not only to overcome in one contest, but to persevere through life. This perfection may also be referred to the sincerity of the soul, that men ought willingly and not feignedly to submit to God; but as the word work is added, I prefer to explain it of constancy. For there are many, as we have said, who shew at first an heroic greatness, and shortly after grow weary and faint. He therefore bids those who would be perfect and entire,1 to persevere to the end.

But what he means by these two words, he afterwards explains, of those who fail not, or become not wearied for they, who being overcome as to patience, are broken down, must, by degrees, be necessarily weakened, and at length wholly fail.

5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

5. Porrò si quis vestrum destituitur sapientia, postulet à Deo, qui dat omnibus simpliciter, nec exprobrat; et dabitur ei.

6. Postulet autem in fide, nihil hæsitans; nam qui hæsitat similis est fluctui maris, qui vento agitur et circumfertur.

7. Non ergo existimet homo ille quòd sit quicquam accepturus à Domino.

8. Vir duplici animo, instabilis est in omnibus viis suis.

5. If any of you lack wisdom. As our reason, and all our feelings are averse to the thought that we can be happy in the midst of evils, he bids us to ask of the Lord to give us wisdom. For wisdom here, I confine to the subject of the passage, as though he had said, "If this doctrine is higher than what your minds can reach to, ask of the Lord to illuminate you by his Spirit; for as this consolation alone is sufficient to mitigate all the bitterness of evils, that what is

1

"Perfect, riu," fully grown, mature; "entire, xózango," complete, no part wanting. The first refers to the maturity of grace; and the second to its completeness, no grace being wanting. They were to be like men full grown, and not maimed or mutilated, but having all their members complete. Ed.

grievous to the flesh is salutary to us; so we must necessarily be overcome with impatience, except we be sustained by this kind of comfort." Since we see that the Lord does not so require from us what is above our strength, but that he is ready to help us, provided we ask, let us, therefore, learn, whenever he commands anything, to ask of him the power to perform it.

Though in this place to be wise is to submit to God in the endurance of evils, under a due conviction that he so orders all things as to promote our salvation; yet the sentence may be generally applied to every branch of right knowledge.

But why does he say, If any one, as though all of them did not want wisdom? To this I answer, that all are by nature without it; but that some are gifted with the spirit of wisdom, while others are without it. As, then, all had not made such progress as to rejoice in affliction, but few there were to whom this had been given, James, therefore, referred to such cases; and he reminded those who were not as yet fully convinced that by the cross their salvation was promoted by the Lord, that they were to ask to be endued with wisdom. And yet there is no doubt, but that necessity reminds us all to ask the same thing; for he who has made the greatest progress, is yet far off from the goal. But to ask an increase of wisdom is another thing than to ask for it at first.

When he bids us to ask of the Lord, he intimates, that he alone can heal our diseases and relieve our wants.

That giveth to all men liberally. By all, he means those who ask; for they who seek no remedy for their wants, deserve to pine away in them. However, this universal declaration, by which every one of us is invited to ask, without exception, is very important; hence no man ought to deprive himself of so great a privilege.

To the same purpose is the promise which immediately follows; for as by this command he shews what is the duty of every one, so he affirms that they would not do in vain. what he commands; according to what is said by Christ, Knock, and it shall be opened." (Matt. vii. 7; Luke xi. 9.)

The word liberally, or freely, denotes promptitude in giving. So Paul, in Rom. xii. 8, requires simplicity in deacons. And in 2 Cor. viii. and ix., when speaking of charity or love, he repeats the same word several times. The meaning, then, is, that God is so inclined and ready to give, that he rejects none, or haughtily puts them off, being not like the niggardly and grasping, who either sparingly, as with a closed hand, give but little, or give only a part of what they were about to give, or long debate with themselves whether to give or not.1

And upbraideth not.

This is added, lest any one should fear to come too often to God. Those who are the most liberal among men, when any one asks often to be helped, mention their former acts of kindness, and thus excuse themselves for the future. Hence, a mortal man, however openhanded he may be, we are ashamed to weary by asking too often. But James reminds us, that there is nothing like this in God; for he is ready ever to add new blessings to former ones, without any end or limitation.

6. But let him ask in faith. He shews here, first the right way of praying; for as we cannot pray without the word, as it were, leading the way, so we must believe before we pray; for we testify by prayer, that we hope to obtain from God the grace which he has promised. Thus every one who has no faith in the promises, prays dissemblingly. Hence, also, we learn what is true faith; for James, after having bidden us to ask in faith, adds this explanation, nothing wavering, or, doubting nothing. Then faith is that which relies on God's promises, and makes us sure of obtaining what we ask. It hence follows, that it is connected with confidence and certainty as to God's love towards us. The verb diakρiveolat, which he uses, means properly to inquire into both sides of a question, after the manner of pleaders. He would have us then to be so convinced of what God has

'The literal meaning of as is simply without any mixture; the noun, órns, is used in the sense of sincerity, which has no mixture of hypocrisy or fraud, (2 Cor. i. 12.) and in the sense of liberality, or disposition free from what is sordid and parsimonious, having no mixture of niggardliness, (2 Cor. viii. 2.) This latter is evidently the meaning here, so that "liberally," according to our version, is the best word.-Ed.

once promised, as not to admit a doubt whether we shall be heard or not.

He that wavereth, or, doubteth. By this similitude he strikingly expresses how God punishes the unbelief of those who doubt his promises; for, by their own restlessness, they torment themselves inwardly; for there is never any calmness for our souls, except they recumb on the truth of God. He, at length, concludes, that such are unworthy to receive anything from God.

This is a remarkable passage, fitted to disprove that impious dogma which is counted as an oracle under the whole Papacy, that is, that we ought to pray doubtingly, and with uncertainty as to our success.

This principle, then, we hold, that our prayers are not heard by the Lord, except when we have a confidence that we shall obtain. It cannot indeed be otherwise, but that through the infirmity of our flesh we must be tossed by various temptations, which are like engines employed to shake our confidence; so that no one is found who does not vacillate and tremble according to the feeling of his flesh; but temptations of this kind are at length to be overcome by faith. The case is the same as with a tree, which has struck firm roots; it shakes, indeed, through the blowing of the wind, but is not rooted up; on the contrary, it remains firm in its own place.

8. A double-minded man, or, a man of a double mind. This sentence may be read by itself, as he speaks generally of hypocrites. It seems, however, to me to be rather the conclusion of the preceding doctrine; and thus there is an implied contrast between the simplicity or liberality of God, mentioned before, and the double-mindedness of man; for as God gives to us with a stretched-out hand, so it behoves us in our turn to open the bosom of our heart. He then says that the unbelieving, who have tortuous recesses, are unstable; because they are never firm or fixed, but at one time they swell with the confidence of the flesh, at another they sink into the depth of despair.1

"The double-minded," or the man with two souls, dixos, means here no doubt the man who hesitates between faith and unbelief, because faith

9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted;

10 But the rich, in that he is made low because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

11. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

9. Porrò glorietur frater humilis in sublimitate sua;

10. Dives autem in humilitate sua, quia tanquam flos herbæ præteribit.

11. Nam sol exortus est cum æstu, et exarescit herba, et flos ejus cecidit, et decor aspectus ejus periit; sic et dives in suis viis (vel, copiis) marcescet.

9. Let the brother of low degree. As Paul, exhorting servants submissively to bear their lot, sets before them this consolation, that they were the free-men of God, having been set free by his grace from the most miserable bondage of Satan, and reminds them, though free, yet to remember that they were the servants of God; so here James in the same manner bids the lowly to glory in this,-that they had been adopted by the Lord as his children; and the rich, because they had been brought down into the same condition, the world's vanity having been made evident to them. Thus the first he would have to be content with their humble and low state; and he forbids the rich to be proud.

Since it is incomparably the greatest dignity to be introduced into the company of angels, nay, to be made the associates of Christ, he who estimates this favour of God aright, will regard all other things as worthless. Then neither poverty, nor contempt, nor nakedness, nor famine, nor thirst, will make his mind so anxious, but that he will sustain himself with this consolation, "Since the Lord has conferred on me the principal thing, it behoves me patiently to bear the loss of other things, which are inferior."

Behold, how a lowly brother ought to glory in his elevation or exaltation; for if he be accepted of God, he has sufficient consolation in his adoption alone, so as not to grieve unduly for a less prosperous state of life.

10. But the rich, in that he is made low, or, in his lowness. He has mentioned the particular for the general; for this admonition pertains to all those who excel in honour, or in dignity, or in any other external thing. He bids them to

is the subject of the passage. When again used, in chap. iv. 8, it means

a hesitation between God and the world - Ed.