02.04. Chapter 4 - Verse 01

James 4:1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even from your lusts, that war in your members?

He had in the former chapter spoken against strifes, as proceeding from envy, and pressed them to a holy wisdom; he doth here speak against strifes and contentions, as proceeding from other carnal lusts, as ambition, covetousness, &c., which make them vex one another, and break out into unseemly brawlings. He proceedeth by way of question and conviction, as appealing to their consciences. From whence come wars and fightings among you?—These words, τόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι, wars and fightings, are usually applied to their private contentions; either strifes and contentions about riches, greatness, and outward pomp, or else vexatious lawsuits, and that before unbelieving judges. And the reason alleged for this exposition is, because the Christians of those times durst not openly invade one another in a hostile way: they must of necessity then have disturbed the peace of the places where they were scattered. But how plausible soever this exposition may seem, to me it is frivolous; partly (1.) because it is harsh to render τόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι, by private strifes and contentions; partly because these wars the apostle speaketh of did go so far as bloodshed; James 4:2, ‘Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, and yet ye have not.’ And (2.) in the epistle to the Hebrews, they went so far as slandering,¹ the true Christians being spoiled and rifled by the counterfeit, Hebrews 10:34. And (3.) Histories speak of wars and tumultuary agitations that then were between Jew and Jew; as Acts 5:37; see Josephus, lib. 18. cap. 1, 4, 10, and lib. 20.; see Grot, in locum. And in these probably many of the pseudo-Christians were engaged. (4.) The apostle out of his special relation doth in this epistle not only write to the believers, but the whole nation of Israel, as doth appear by many passages of the epistle, and hath been once and again cleared.

¹ Qu. ‘plundering’? ED.

Come they not hence, even from your lusts, ἀπο τῶν ἡδονῶν, ‘from your pleasures,’ as it is in the margin. Lust and pleasure are often put for each other, and sometimes they are coupled; as Titus 3:3, ‘Serving divers lusts and pleasures:’ both note the affection of a wicked man to sin. Lust noteth properly the earnest motion of the soul after sin; pleasure, the contentment it findeth in sin. Sin is a pleasure to wicked men; it taketh up their desires or delights: 2 Peter 2:13, ‘Take pleasure to riot away the daytime,’ 2 Thessalonians 2:12. ‘Had pleasure in unrighteousness.’ Pleasure is a sign of a perfect habit, and it is hardly left. Beware of a delight in sin, when acts of uncleanness, or thoughts of revenge are sweet to you, or when you please yourself in surmises of vanity, and proud reflections upon your honour and greatness in the world. Lord, if ever sin overcome, let it be my burden, and not my pleasure. It is a sad and high degree to ‘rejoice to do evil.’ Which war in your members.—There are several sorts of wars in the heart of man. In a wicked man’s heart there may be combats—(1.) Between a man and his conscience. A heathen² could say, στασιάζει αὐτῶν ψύχη, their soul is in a mutiny; and elsewhere, speaking of a wicked man, οὔδε πρὸς ἑαυτὸν φιλικῶς ἔχει, he is not friends with himself. A wicked man and his conscience are at odds and difference. (2.) Between conviction and corruption. Sin stormeth at the light that discovereth it, and ‘the law of the members’ riseth up against ‘the law of the mind.’ (3.) Between corruption and corruption. Lusts are contrary one to another, and therefore jostle for the throne, and usually take it by turns. As our ancestors sent for the Saxons to drive out the Picts, so do carnal men drive out one lust by another, and, like the lunatic in the Gospel, Matthew 17:1-27, ‘fall sometimes in the water and sometimes in the fire.’ As diseases are contrary, not only to health, but to themselves, so are sins, not only to grace, but to one another; and we ought not seek to cure a dead palsy by a burning fever. But now in a godly man the war is between sin and grace, fleshly counsel and enlightened reason. Now these ‘wars’ are said to be ‘in their members.’ By members are understood both inward and outward faculties, which are employed as instruments of sin; and the inward faculties are called members elsewhere: Romans 7:23, ‘The law in the members.’ He meaneth the strong inclination and bent of the will and affections against the knowledge of the truth. So Romans 6:13, ‘Give not up your members to be weapons of unrighteousness;’ that is, your faculties, which are exercised in and by the members of the body, and because of the analogy and proportion that they carry to the outward members, as the eye to the understanding, the will to the hand, &c.

² Arist. Ethic.

Obs. 1. Lust is the makebait in a community. Covetousness, pride, and ambition make men injurious and insolent. (1.) Covetousness maketh us to contend with those that have anything that we covet, as Ahab with Naboth; hence those injuries and vexatious suits between neighbour and neighbour; hence public contentions.³ Men care not how they overturn all public welfare, so they may attain those things upon which their covetous and carnal desires have fastened. The Assyrian king did ‘destroy and cut off nations not a few,’ to add to the greatness of his empire, Isaiah 10:7. (2.) Pride is the cockatrice egg that discloseth the fiery flying-serpent: Proverbs 13:10, ‘By pride cometh contention.’ Pride endureth no equals. Haman’s thirst of blood came from his haughtiness; the apostles strove who should be greatest. (3.) Ambition. Diotrephes’ loving the preeminence disturbed the churches of Asia, 3 John 1:9. (4.) Envy. Abraham and Lot’s herdsmen fell out, Genesis 13:7. Two great ones cannot endure one another near them: Galatians 5:26, ‘Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.’

³ ‘Ex cupiditatibus odia, dissidia, discordiæ, seditiones, bella nascuntur.’—Tullius de Finibus, lib. 1.

Obs. 2. When evils abound in a place, it is good to look after the rise and cause of them. Men engage in a heat, and do not know wherefore: usually lust is at the bottom; the sight of the cause will shame us. Is it not because I would be greater than others, more pompous and high than they? Grammarians talk of finding out the root, and philosophers of finding out the cause; so may Christians also. It is good to sift things to the bran and bottom. From whence doth this come? 1 Corinthians 3:3, ‘While there is among you envying, strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal?’ It is good to check the fervour of an engagement by such a pause and consideration.

Obs. 3. Lust is a tyrant that warreth in the soul, and warreth against the soul. (1.) It warreth in the soul; it abuseth your affections, to carry on the rebellion against heaven: Galatians 5:17, ‘The flesh lusteth against the Spirit,’ &c. The Spirit no sooner presenteth a good motion, but the flesh riseth up in defiance against it; there is pride, and passion, and earthly-mindedness, envy, sensuality, unbelief, self-seeking, carnal policy; as soon as you purpose to repent, believe, pray, these are ready to hinder you, to distract you, that you cannot do the things that you would; nay, the flesh sometimes lusteth against the flesh: sin is a burdensome taskmaster, it commandeth contrary things. How often is a man divided between his pomp and his sparing, his luxury and his covetousness! (2.) It warreth against the soul: 1 Peter 2:11, ‘Abstain from fleshy lusts, which war against the soul.’ You carry an enemy in your own bosoms, which defaceth the beauty, disturbeth the order, and enthralleth the liberty of the soul. Instead of God’s image there is Satan’s likeness; and instead of subjection to reason there is the rebellion of appetite and vile affections; instead of freedom for righteousness there is a sad bondage, which we may discover, but cannot help.

Before I go from this verse, I must handle two questions; one is concerning outward wars, and the other concerning inward.

Quest. 1. Concerning outward wars. The apostle’s speech is indefinite, and at first seemeth to condemn all wars, as if they were of a base original and descent, of the lineage of lust; therefore I shall inquire whether any wars are lawful or no. Besides the insinuation of the text, a further cause of doubting is the unsuitableness of it to a Christian spirit, it being the most dreadful way of retaliating and revenging wrongs, which is contrary to Christianity, and a course not only questioned by some modern Anabaptists, but by antiquity itself. The eleventh canon of the Nicene Council enjoineth penance to them that take up arms after their conversion to Christianity; and to this very day it is decried by the whole Socinian school, as contrary to evangelical meekness and patience, and that course of defence which Christ hath instituted, to wit, martyrdom, or shedding of our own blood, not spilling that of others.

I answer briefly—(1.) There is nothing in scripture expressly against it, nothing but strained consequences, as that of Matthew 5:43-44, concerning love of enemies, which is forced; for nothing is there commanded but what is commanded in the Old Testament. Now there wars are approved, yea, appointed by God; and that saying of Christ concerneth private persons forbidding private revenge, passions, and animosities; and so likewise Matthew 5:39, where we are forbidden to resist, must be understood of the retaliations of private revenge; and so that of Romans 12:19-21, ‘Avenge not yourselves,’ &c. The magistrate’s vengeance is God’s vengeance; he is a person authorised by the Lord: therefore is it forbidden to a private man he is not God’s minister to avenge them that do ill, &c. (2.) If there were something in the letter against it, it were to be modified by some commodious interpretation, rather than commonwealths should be deprived of such a necessary support. If the avoiding of a personal inconvenience, as one argueth well, hath by all men been accounted a sufficient reason to expound literal scriptures to a spiritual sense, as those of cutting off the right arm and the right eye, then questionless the letter of such scriptures must be made receptive of other signification; lest human societies should be destroyed, and disarmed of so necessary defence, and the world be turned into one universal rout and confusion; for religion is reasonable and innocent, and would establish no such inconveniences to mankind. (3.) There seemeth to be somewhat in the letter of the scripture for it. Wars in the Old Testament are approved and commanded by God. In the Apocalypse there is a manifest approbation, if not excitation, of the people of God in their wars against antichrist. Besides, that they are not simply unlawful, it may be pleaded that John, being asked concerning the duty of soldiers, instructeth them, but doth not deny their calling,⁴ Luke 3:14. And again, Peter baptizeth Cornelius without requiring him to give over his military employment, Acts 10.; he continued in it when religious, Acts 10:2; he sent to Peter στρατιώτην εὐσεβῆ, ‘a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually.’ So Christ commendeth the centurion, without disallowing his office; so Paul used a band of soldiers against the treachery of the Jews; all which instances yield probable arguments. (4.) It may be proved lawful by such reasons and consequences as do well suit with the analogy of faith and the intent of the scripture. Christ came not to destroy communities. Now war is the solemn instrument of justice, the restraint of vice and public insolences, the support of a body politic against foreign invasions and domestic rebellions. It were against the interest of all government to deny them this power to resist and withstand the insolences of foreigners or the mutinies of subjects.⁵ They are higher powers, ordained for God to resist evil, Romans 13:4; that is, for the punishment of vice, which cannot be done without war many times, as in Judges 20:1-48, and with us now: we are bidden to give all necessary supports to them that are in authority for the maintenance of justice, Matthew 22:1-46, ‘Give to Cæsar,’ &c., and Romans 8:6-7. (5.) There is so little in scripture about it, because nature of itself is prone to such cruel and violent remedies, it being revengeful and ambitious. You shall see in all such like cases, where man is very ready to practise, the scripture is very sparing in licensing or requiring. We all desire to sin cum privilegio, with a warrant from heaven; and to say as those in the prophet, ‘Thou hast deceived us,’ Jeremiah 4:10; or this we do by divine warrant. Therefore the scripture in many matters useth great silence and reservation, lest, by frequent injunctions, it draw out our natural cruelty and revenge, which it seeketh everywhere to restrain. (6.) There are several other reasons why Christianity should be so sparing in directions and alterations concerning war. Partly to take off the scandal of being a makebait, the usual consequent of the gospel being a sword through the corruption of the world. Partly to keep people patient, and in a peaceable cohabitation, as long as equity and common safety may permit, and that there may be an exercise for faith, expecting the recompenses of God for all the wrong done to us; and of thankfulness, forgiving for Christ’s sake. Partly to restrain cruelty and delight in war. That is a character of profane men, how lawful soever the quarrel may be: Psalms 68:30, and Psalms 120:7, ‘They are for war,’ &c. It is a barbarous and beastly disposition.⁶ Partly to show that peace must not be broken but upon urgent necessity. Every discontent with present affairs will not warrant so desperate a remedy; a thing so highly penal and afflictive should be the last refuge. Partly to prevent unlawful wars. But you will say, What wars are unlawful? I answer—To make a war lawful there must be a concurrence of several things: there must be offensio patientis, the merits of the cause—jurisdictio judicantis, the warrant of authority—intentio finis convenientis, the uprightness of intention—and œquitas prosequentis, the form of prosecution. (1.) When there is not a good cause, the assailed may cry, as David, ‘Lord, they hate me without a cause.’ Every slight pretence will not warrant it, nor every real cause, till other means are tried; for war, being the highest act of vindictive justice, must never be undertaken but upon weighty reasons. It is good to look to this circumstance; if the cause be good, and you are moved with other particular reasons, you sin. (2.) When there is no good authority to warrant it. The power of the civil sword is committed to magistracy, though for the people’s good: it is not for every one that is discontented with the present government to take up arms at pleasure; that layeth a ground of all disorder and confusion. But now what authority is necessary may be gathered from the particular constitution of every kingdom: distinct societies have their distinct forms and administrations; in most, the supreme power doth not consist in one, but more persons. (3.) When there is not a right end in those that raise the wars, and in all that engage in it, which must be not only the glory of God in the general, but those particular civil and righteous ones which are proper to war, as the just defence of the community, or the punishment of such enormous offences as cannot otherwise be redressed. In short, the end of all war should be a righteous peace; not to enlarge territories, to revenge affronts, to weaken a growing power;⁷ not to feed a desire of gain, not to give vent to pride by a discovery of our force and puissance, not to royl the waters that we may fish the better, not to work public changes and innovations for the accomplishing of such things as our covetousness and ambition desireth; not for honour, pay, but in obedience to the higher powers, and a sense of the common good. (4.) When it is not managed in a righteous way, as with cruelty and oppression. Before engagement there should be treating, Deuteronomy 20:10, they were first to ‘proclaim peace;’ so 2 Samuel 20:18, ‘They shall ask at Abel, and so make an end.’ We should not run upon one another like beasts, not staying for any capitulations. In the battle you must shed as little blood as possibly may be; after the battle you should take nothing from the vanquished but the power of hurting. Briefly, nothing should be done but what suiteth with the just ends of the war, nothing that violateth the law of nature or nations.

⁴ ‘Quibus proprium stipendium sufficere debere præcepit, militare utique non prohibuit.’—Aug. Epist. 5 ad Marcellinum. Et alibi: ‘Nisi justa bella suscipi possent, responderet iis, arma abjicite, militari deserite,’ &c. Aug. contra Faustum lib. 22. cap. 74.

⁵ ‘Hoc et ratio doctis, et necessitas barbaris, et mos gentibus, et feris natura ipsa præscripsit, ut omnem semper vim quacunque ope posseut, a corpore, a capite, a vita sua propulsarent.’—Cic. Orat. pro Milone.

⁶ ‘Quem discordiæ, quem cædes civium, quem bellum civile delectat, eum ex numero hominum, ex finibus humanæ naturæ exterminandum puto.’—M. Tull. Cic. Philip. 13.

⁷ Therefore Alexander was called Totius orbis prœdo—the public robber of the world.

Many things might be spoken to this purpose, but I would not dwell upon the discourse. One scruple I shall but touch upon, and that is, whether religion be to be defended with arms or no? I answer—Spiritual things are best defended with spiritual weapons. Christ’s warfare is not carnal; but yet sometimes the outward exercises of religion and worship may be established and secured by laws; and among other privileges and rights, the liberty of pure worship may be one, which, if it be invaded by violence, may be defended with arms. So a magistrate may arm his subjects against an invading idolater. The estates of a kingdom may maintain their religion against the tyranny and malice of the prince, if, after faith given to maintain the laws and the religion established, he should go about to violate it: but if the prince be absolute, and not under former obligations, we have no other remedy left but prayers, and tears, and meek defences.

Out of all you may learn—(1.) Not to cry up a confederacy with every one that crieth up a confederacy. Wars may easily be unrighteous, and it is dangerous to come under the guilt of it. Here we walk upon the brink; it is the most solemn and severe act of vindicative justice, and therefore must not be undertaken slightly. (2.) If we may so many ways sin in war, what cause have we to be humbled, if any of us have been guilty of an undue concurrence to so great an evil, either by irregular engagement, or perverse intentions! The more universal the influence or sad consequences of a sin are, the more grievous should it be in the remembrance; besides the hurt done to our own souls, there is a wrong to others.

Quest. 2. The next question is, Whether lusts war in the heart of a godly man? The occasion of doubting is, because he writeth to Christians, and saith, ‘Lusts that war in your members.’ And Peter writing to the same saith, ‘Abstain from fleshly lusts,’ &c., 1 Peter 2:11.

Ans. I answer—Yes. The life of a Christian is a wrestling, conflicting estate; there is a double nature in the best, ‘flesh and spirit,’ Galatians 5:17. We carry an enemy in our bosoms; the Canaanite is not wholly cast out. It was a good prayer of him that said, ‘Lord deliver me from one evil man, and it shall suffice,’ meaning himself.⁸ Flesh and spirit, like the twins in Rebecca’s womb, they war and struggle; yea, lusts stir and rage more in a godly heart, to sense and feeling, than in a wicked. ‘When the strong man keepeth the house, the goods are in peace,’ Luke 11:21. There is no stir; wind and tide goeth together. Conviction may sometimes awaken drowsy lusts, otherwise all is still and quiet; but usually there is more trouble with sin after conversion, especially presently upon conversion. A bullock is most unruly at first yoking, Jeremiah 31:18; and green wood, as soon as it beginneth to be fired, casteth much smoke. The devil rageth when he hath but a short time, Revelation 12:12. And the like you must expect, though in a less degree, in all the duties of holiness. When Joshua came before the Lord, ‘Satan was at his right hand ready to resist him,’ Zechariah 3:1. Since the fall it is some evidence of grace to find this contrariety; since the admission of sin, grace is more discerned by the combat than by the absolute victory.

⁸ ‘Libera me a malo homine, a meipso.’ But you will say, How doth this war in a godly man differ from that in a wicked man? The ground of inquiry is, because condition and common illumination may make wicked men hate some sins: there is in them a war between the natural light of conscience and sensual courses, and their hearts will reproach them for gross sins or gross neglects.

I answer—(1.) There is a great deal of difference. Partly in regard of the grounds. A gracious man opposeth sin as it crosseth God’s holiness, a wicked man as it crosseth God’s justice; the one saith, God hateth this, the other saith, God will punish this; the one worketh out of a principle of love, the other of fear: the one hateth sin as defiling, the other as damning; the one as disabling him for good, Romans 7:18; Galatians 5:17, the other because of incommodity and sensible inconvenience; otherwise they can brook sin well enough; he doth not oppose sin as it interrupteth his communion with God. A wicked man careth not to be with God, so he might be securely without him. In short, in a godly man the two seeds and natures are opposite, but in the wicked there is only some foreign awe impressed upon the conscience, and his dislike is rather from a present anger than a settled hatred. (2.) Partly in regard of the manner. In the one, sin is opposed voluntarily, willingly, readily, because he hateth sin and loveth the commandment; in the other, God’s restraint is more grievous than corruption: ‘The carnal mind is enmity to the law of God,’ Romans 8:7. They snarl at the restraint, they would be ‘willingly ignorant,’ 2 Peter 3:5. A child of God doth the evil that he hateth, but resistance in wicked men is nothing but the rising of a carnal will against an enlightened understanding. (3.) Sometimes in regard of the help. In the one the Spirit warreth against the flesh; in the other, most commonly flesh against flesh; as our fathers drove out the Picts by the Saxons, so they extrude one lust by another. A godly man riseth against sin upon such considerations as the Spirit suggesteth: ‘How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God?’ Genesis 39:9; but a wicked man is mostly moved by carnal considerations. (4.) Partly in regard of the extent. A godly man’s resistance is universal; he hateth sin as sin;⁹ and true hatred is πρὸς τὰ γένη, against the whole kind:¹⁰ Psalms 119:1-176, ‘I hate every false way.’ A wicked man hateth some gross and staring sins; others, which are plausible and profitable, are reserved as a sweet morsel under their tongues. The hatred of a godly man is perpetual and irreconcilable; that of a wicked man may be pacified; he distasteth sin when conscience is roused. A man’s heart riseth against a sword when it is drawn against him, but after it is laid down he will take it up; that resembleth a wicked man’s resistance. A man’s heart riseth against a toad, so that he will not touch it dead or alive; that resembleth the natural and constant enmity that is between a gracious heart and sin. (5.) In regard of the effects. A gracious soul is more humbled and cast down: Romans 7:1-25, ‘O wretched man that I am.’ &c. It putteth him upon humble and pious addresses to God by prayer, and maketh him more jealous and watchful over his own heart; but a convinced man loseth ground conflicting with sin in his own strength; by his own thoughts he cometh at length to lose all awe and fear.

⁹ ‘A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia.’

¹⁰ Arist. Rhet.