02.01. Chapter 1 - Verse 11

James 1:11. 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.

He pursueth the similitude, and in the close of the verse applieth it. There is nothing needeth illustration but the latter clause. So shall; that is, so may; for the passage is not absolutely definitive of what always shall be, but only declarative of what may be; and, therefore, the future tense is used for the potential mood. We see, many times, that ‘the wicked live, become old, and mighty in power; their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them: their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf,’ Job 21:7-10. Therefore, I say, the apostle showeth not what always cometh to pass, but what may be, and usually falleth out, and what at length certainly will be their portion. The rich man.—That is either to be taken generally for the rich, whether godly or ungodly, or more especially for the ungodly person that trusteth in his riches.

Fade away μαρανθήσεται, a word proper to herbs when they lose their verdure and beauty. In his ways.—Some read, as Erasmus and Gagneus, ἐν πορίαις, ‘with his abundance,’ which reading Calvin also approveth, as suiting better with the context, ‘So shall the rich and all his abundance fade away;’ but the general and more received reading is that which we follow, ἐν πορείαις in his ways or journeys; the word is emphatical, and importeth that earnest industry by which men compass sea and land, run hither and thither in the pursuit of wealth, and yet, when all is done, it fadeth like the flower of the grass. The notes are these:—

Obs. 1. From the continuance of the similitude, that the vanity of flowers should hint thoughts to us about the vanity of our own comforts. We delight in pictures and emblems, for then the soul, by the help of fancy and imagination, hath a double view of the object in the similitude, which is, as it were, a picture of it, and then the thing itself. This was God’s ancient way to teach his people by types; still he teacheth us by similitudes taken from common and ordinary objects, that when we are cast upon them, spiritual thoughts may be awakened; and so every ordinary object is, as it were, hallowed and consecrated to a heavenly purpose. Well, then, let this be your field or garden meditation; when you see them decked with a great deal of bravery, remember all this is gone in an instant when the burning heat ariseth. In the text it is (let me open that by the way) ἥλιος σὺν τῷ καύσωνι, the sun with a burning wind, so in the original; for καύσων, the word used here, is usually put here for a scorching wind, which, in the hot and eastern countries, was wont to accompany the rising of the sun; as Jonah 4:8, ‘It came to pass, when the sun did begin to arise, God prepared a vehement east wind;’ and, therefore, do we read of ‘the drying east wind,’ Ezekiel 17:10; and in many places of Hosea. It was a hot, piercing wind that blasted all things, and was the usual figure of God’s judgments; and so the psalmist saith, ‘The wind passeth over it, and it is gone,’ Psalms 103:16. But this by the way, because I omitted it in the exposition. When, I say, you walk in a garden or field, as Isaac did, to meditate, Genesis 24:63, think thus with yourselves: Here is a goodly show and paintry; but alas! these things are but for a season; they would fade away of their own accord, but the breath of the east wind will soon dry them up; so are all worldly comforts like flowers in the spring, good in their season, but very vanishing and perishing.

Obs. 2. That our comforts are perishing in themselves, but especially when the hand of providence is stretched out against them. The flower fadeth of itself, but chiefly when it is scorched by the glowing, burning east wind. Our hearts should be loose at all times from outward things, but especially in times of public desolation; it is a sin against providence to affect great things: when God is over turning all, then there is a burning heat upon the flowers, and God is gone forth to blast worldly glory: Jeremiah 45:4-5, ‘The Lord saith I will pluck up this whole land, and seekest thou great things for thyself?’ that is, a prosperous condition in a time of public desolation; it is as if a man should be planting flowers when there is a wind gone forth to blast them. Well, then, take heed you do not make providence your enemy, then your comforts will become more perishing. You cannot then expect a comfortable warmth from God, but a burning heat. There are three sins especially by which you make providence your enemy, and so the creatures more vain.

1. When you abuse them to serve your lusts. Where there is pride and wantonness, you may look for a burning; certainly your flowers will be scorched and dried up. Pleasant Sodom, when it was given to ‘pride, and idleness, and fulness of bread,’ met with a burning heat indeed, Ezekiel 16:49, in Salvian’s phrase,¹ God will rain hell out of heaven rather than not visit for such sins.

¹ ‘Pluit Gehennam e cœlo.’—Salvian de Provid.

2. When you make them objects of trust. God can brook no rivals; trust being the fairest and best respect of the creatures, it must not be intercepted, but ascend to God. If you make idols of the creatures, God will make nothing of them; the fire of God’s jealousy is a burning heat. God took away from Judah the staff and the stay, Isaiah 3:1, that is, that which they made so, excluding him; for that is the case in the context. So when you trust in your wealth, as if it must needs be well with your families, and you were secured against all judgments, and turns of providence; certainly God will take away the staff and the stay, and show that riches are but dead helps, when they are preferred before the living God, 1 Timothy 6:17.

3. When you get them by wrong means. Wealth thus gotten is flesh (like the eagles from the altar) with a coal in it, that devoureth the whole nest: Habakkuk 2:9, ‘Woe be to him that coveteth an evil covetousness, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil.’ You think it is a ready way to advance you; no, this is the ready way to ruin all: James 5:3, ‘Your gold and silver shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire;’ that is, draw the fire and burning heat of God’s wrath upon yourselves and families. From that his ways.

Obs. 3. Worldly men pursue wealth with great care and industry. The rich turneth hither and thither, he hath several ways whereby to accomplish his ends. In self-denial, covetousness is the ape of grace; it ‘suffereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,’ 1 Corinthians 13:6-7. What pains do men take for things that perish! Do but observe their incessant care, earnest labour, and unwearied industry, and say, how well would this suit with the heavenly treasure! It is a pity a plant that would thrive so well in Canaan should still grow in the soil of Egypt; that the zealous earnestness of the soul should be misplaced, and we should take more pains to be rich unto the world than to be rich towards God. Luke 12:21. Man fallen is but the anagram of man in innocency, he hath the same affections and delights, only they are transposed and misplaced; therefore do we offend in the measure, because we mistake in the object. Or else, secondly, observe their pains and care, and say thus: Shall a lust have more power upon them than the love of God upon me? I have higher motives, and a reward more sure, Proverbs 11:18; they are more earnest for an earthly purchase, and to heap up treasure to themselves, than I am to enrich my soul with spiritual and heavenly excellences. Surely grace is an active thing, of as forcible an efficacy as corruption; why then do we act with such difference and disproportion? The fault is not in grace, but in ourselves. Grace is like a keen weapon in a child’s hand; it maketh little impression because it is weakly wielded. Worldly men have the advantage of us in matter of principle, but we have the advantage of them in matter of motive; we have higher motives, but they more entire principles, for what they do, they do with their whole heart; but our principles are mixed, and therefore grace worketh with a greater faintness than corruption doth. But, however, it is sad. Pambus, in ecclesiastical history, wept when he saw a harlot dressed with much care and cost, partly to see one take so much pains for her own undoing, partly because he had not been so careful to please God as she had been to please a wanton lover. And truly when we see men ‘cumber themselves with much serving,’ and toiling and bustling up and down in the world, and all for riches that ‘take themselves wings and fly away,’ we may be ashamed that we do so little for Christ, and they do so much for wealth, and that we do not lay out our strength and earnestness for heaven with any proportion to what they do for the world.

Obs. 4. Lastly, again, from that ἐν ταῖς πορείαις, from his ways or journeys. All our endeavours will be fruitless if God’s hand be against us. As the flower to the burning heat, so is the rich man in his ways; that is, notwithstanding all his industry and care, God may soon blast him: they ‘earned wages, but put it in a bag with holes,’ Haggai 1:6, that is, their gains did not thrive with them. Peter ‘toiled all night but caught nothing,’ till he took Christ into the boat, Luke 5:5. So you will catch nothing, nothing with comfort and profit, till you take God along with you: Psalms 127:2, ‘It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.’ Some take this place in a more particular and restrained sense; as if David would intimate that all their agitations to oppose the reign of Solomon, though backed with much care and industry, should be fruitless; though Absalom and Adonijah were tortured with the care of their own ambitious designs, yet God would give Jedidiah, or his beloved, rest; that is, the kingdom should quietly and safely be devolved upon Solomon, who took no such pains to court the people, and to raise himself up into their esteem as Absalom and Adonijah did; and they ground this exposition partly on the title of the psalm, ‘a, psalm for Solomon,’ partly on the name of Solomon, who was called Jedidijah, or the beloved of the Lord, 2 Samuel 12:24-25, the word used here, ‘he giveth his beloved rest.’ But I suppose this sense is too curious; for though the psalm be entitled to Solomon, yet I think not so much by way of prophecy as direction: for as Psalms 72:1-20 (which also beareth title for Solomon) representeth to him the model of a kingdom and the affairs thereof, so this psalm, the model of a family, with the incident cares and blessings of it; and therefore the passages of it are of a more universal and unlimited concernment than to be appropriated to Solomon; and it is not to be neglected that the Septuagint turn the Hebrew word plurally, τοῖς ἀγαπητοῖς αὐτοῦ ὕπνον, ‘his beloved ones sleep,’ showing that the sentence is general. The meaning is, then, that though worldly men fare never so hardly, beat their brains, tire their spirits, rack their consciences, yet many times all is for nothing; either God doth not give them an estate, or not the comfort of it. But his beloved, with out any of these racking cares, enjoy contentment: if they have not the world, they have sleep and rest; with silence submitting to the will of God, and with quietness waiting for the blessing of God. Well, then, acknowledge the providence that you may come under the blessing of it; labour without God cannot prosper; against God and against his will in his word, will surely miscarry.