02.04. Chapter 4 - Verse 08

James 4:8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.

He cometh again to the main thing in question, the success of humble addresses to God, showing we shall not want the divine help, if we do but make way for it. God is never wanting to us till we are first wanting to ourselves. We withdraw our hearts from God, and therefore no wonder if we do not feel the effects of his grace. All the world may judge between God and sinners, who shall bear the blame of our wants and miseries, providence or our own hearts. If ‘the foolishness of man pervert his ways,’ there is no cause why we should ‘fret against God,’ Proverbs 19:3.

Draw nigh to God.—You may look upon the words as spoken to sinners or to converts.

First, To sinners, or men uncalled; and then the sense is ‘draw nigh to God,’ that is, seek him by faith and repentance; ‘and he will draw nigh to you,’ that is, with his grace and blessing. Thence observe:—

Obs. 1. That every man by nature needeth to draw nigh to God. Drawing nigh implieth an absence and departure: we are ‘estranged from the womb,’ Psalms 58:3. As soon as we were able to go we went astray. In Adam we lost three things the image of God, the favour of God, and fellowship with God. As soon as man sinned, God speaketh to Adam as lost: ‘Adam, where art thou?’ Non es ubi prius eras, as Austin glosseth—thou art not where thou wert before. So when Christ would resemble our apostate nature, he doth it by a prodigal’s going ‘into a far country.’ Luke 15:14. And the apostle giveth the reason how we came to lose the fellowship as well as the favour of God, when he thus describeth the natural estate of the Gentiles, ‘alienated from the life of God,’ Ephesians 4:18. We are strangers to God’s life, and therefore no wonder if we have lost his company. Trees do not converse with beasts, nor beasts with men, because they do not live the life of each other. Sense must fit the trees to converse with beasts, and reason the beasts to converse with men, and grace must fit men to converse with God. There is a distance, you see. Now men alienate themselves more and more, partly by their affections, and partly by their practices. By their affections; they care not for God, desire not his company: Job 21:14, ‘Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.’ Fallen man is grown obstinate, little worse¹ than the devil. The devils said, ‘Depart from us; art thou come to torment us before our time?’ Matthew 8:1-34. God’s presence is their torment. Men care not to hold communion with him, because of a hatred to his ways; they wish the annihilation and destruction of his being. It is a pleasing thought to carnal spirits to suppose that if there were no God they might let loose the reins to vile affections. So also by their practices. All sins divide between God and the soul:² Isaiah 59:2, ‘Your iniquities have separated between you and God.’ Sin maketh us shy of his presence; guilt cannot endure a thought of the judge; and it maketh God offended with us. How can a holy nature delight in an impure creature? And as sin in the general doth thus, so there are some special sins that separate between God and the soul; as pride: Psalms 138:6, ‘The proud he knoweth afar off.’ God standeth at a distance, and will have no communion with a proud spirit. So creature-confidence and self-satisfaction, that keepeth us off from God; we stand at a distance, as if we had enough of our own: Jeremiah 17:5, ‘Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his arm, departing from the living God.’ The nearest union is wrought by faith, that maketh the soul stay in him; and the greatest separation when we go to other confidences, for then there is a plain leaving of God. Well, then, consider your condition by nature—aliens from God. That you may resent it the more, consider the cause and the effects of it. (1.) The cause. The heart is set upon sin, and therefore estranged from God: Colossians 1:21, ‘Alienated, and enemies in your minds by evil works;’ or it may be rendered, ‘by your minds in evil works;’ mente operibus malis intenta, that is, because the mind is set upon sin. Likeness is the ground of love.³ There being such a disproportion between us and God, we delight not in him. So Job 21:1-34, ‘Depart from us;’ why? ‘for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.’ We do not love holiness, and therefore do not love God. What a madness is this, to part with God for sin! If you will not be saints, be men; be not devils; they cannot endure God’s presence upon that ground. (2.) The effects of it. You that fly from God as a friend, you will find him an enemy; you may depart from him as a friend, you cannot escape him as an enemy. It is a sweet passage that of Austin,⁴ Te non amittit nisi qui dimittit: et qui te dimittit quo fugit, nisi a te placato ad te iratum? You that cannot endure the presence of God, or a thought of him, where will you go from him? Psalms 139:7, ‘Whither shall I flee from thy presence? In heaven thou art there; in hell thou art there,’ &c. Where will you go? Jeremiah 23:23, ‘Am I God at hand, and not a God afar off?’ God is here, and there, and everywhere; you will find him wherever you go. Surely then it is better to draw near to him as a friend than to run from him as an enemy.

¹ Qu. ‘Better’? ED.

² ‘Peccata elongant nos voluntate, non loco.’

³ ‘Φίλον καλοῦμεν ὁμοίον ὁμοίῳ κατʼ ἀρετὴν.’—Plato de Leg. 8.

⁴ Lib. 4. Confess., cap. 9.

Obs. 2. A great duty that lieth upon the fallen creature is drawing nigh to God. I do not mean to handle the duty at large: I shall only open three things:—

1. How God and the creature may be said to be near one to another, or to draw nigh. God’s special presence is in heaven, and we are on earth; and his general presence is with all the creatures, and so ‘he is not far from any one of us,’ Acts 17:1-34. I answer—It is to be understood spiritually; we draw nigh unto him non vestigiis corporis, sed animo, not by the feet of the body, but the soul. Spirits may have converse with one another though at a distance. Now God’s children are with him in their thoughts, in the affections and dispositions of their souls. Their πολίτευμα, ‘their business and negotiation is in heaven,’ Php 3:20; ‘Their heart and their treasure is there,’ Matthew 6:20-21. Their desires are there; the world is but a larger prison. But it is more especially meant of their communion with God in duties, wherein their souls and their prayers are ‘lifted up’ to him, Acts 10:4; and he is said to come down to meet them, Isaiah 64:5. And also it noteth the continual intercourse that is between God and them in all their ways. The first epistle of John was written to this purpose, ‘That they might have fellowship and communion with the Father and the Son,’ 1 John 1:3.

2. How is this effected and brought about, since we cannot endure the thought of God? The question is necessary. This was the great design of heaven, to find out a way to bring man into fellowship again with his maker; and God hath found out a ‘new and living way’ by Christ, and therefore he is said to be ‘the way to the Father,’ John 14:6. And the main intent of his incarnation and death was ‘to bring us to God,’ 1 Peter 3:18. To bring strangers and enemies together is a mighty work. But how doth Christ effect it? I answer—(1.) Partly by doing something for us—satisfying God’s justice, and ‘bearing our sins in his body upon the tree;’ otherwise guilt could have no commerce with wrath, stubble with devouring burnings: ‘God is a consuming fire,’ and we are as ‘stubble fully dry.’ Now Christ is a screen drawn between us:⁵ the divine glory would swallow us up, but Christ’s flesh is a veil that abateth the edge and brightness of it, Hebrews 10:19-20. (2.) Partly by doing something in us. Christ’s work in bringing a soul to God is not ended upon the cross; he giveth us the graces of his Holy Spirit, which fit us for communion with God. The principal are these:—Faith, which is nothing else but a coming to God by Christ for grace, mercy, and salvation: Hebrews 10:22, ‘Draw nigh by the assurance of faith.’ Unbelief is a going off from God, Hebrews 3:12, and Zephaniah 3:2; and faith a coming to him. Then love, the grace of union. By desire, it maketh us go out to God; by delight it keepeth us there: the one is the thirst, the other the satisfaction of the soul. Love runneth out upon the feet of desire, and resteth in the bosom of delight. Then holiness: ‘God will be sanctified in those that draw nigh to him.’ Leviticus 10:3. Holy hearts are fittest to deal with a holy God, otherwise we should not endure God, nor God us. Then fear, by which the soul walketh with God, and is near to him: there where the thoughts are, there we are spiritually. Of wicked men it is said, ‘God is not in all their thoughts;’ but the godly always keep God in their eye: Acts 2:25, ‘I foresaw the Lord always before me.’ Fear still keepeth them in his company. Then humility; because of our distance and guilt we cannot come to God unless we come humbly and upon our knees: Psalms 95:6, ‘Come let us worship and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our maker;’ that is the fittest posture in approaches to God: God ‘will dwell with the humble,’ Isaiah 57:15. Now all these graces, being exercised in the conversation, or in holy duties, where the addresses to God are more direct, make the soul near to him.

⁵ ‘Absque cruore Domini nemo appropinquat Deo.’—Hieron.

3. The last question is, What special acts doth the soul put forth when it draweth nigh to God? The answer may be given you from what was said before. There must be an act of faith in our wants; by faith we must see that in God which we stand in need of in sense. Fear must be acted in all our ways, keeping us in God’s eye: persons loose and regardless are far from God: ‘Walk before me,’ &c., Genesis 17:1. Then love and humility must be acted in holy duties. Drawing nigh doth chiefly imply humble and fervorous addresses; when you come naked to God, as the rich man that will clothe you; hungry to God, as the bountiful man that will feed you; sick to God, as the physician that will cure you; as servants to your Lord, as disciples to your master, as blind to the light, as cold to the fire, &c. The creatures addresses are best when they begin in want and end in hope, when there is a rare mixture of humility and confidence; and love there must be in every duty, for God must be sought as well as served.

Well, then, let us all mind this duty. Sin is a departing from God, grace a returning. Draw nigh to him, make out after the comforts and supports of his presence: the way is by Christ, but you must resolve upon it; I must, and I will: Psalms 27:8, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek;’ there must be a care to bring the soul to this resolution. Mark that place, Jeremiah 30:21, ‘I will cause him to draw near and approach to me, saith the Lord; for who is this that engageth his heart to draw near to me?’ that is, by my Spirit I will comfort them. But will you engage your hearts? Out of a conviction of the necessity and excellency of the duty, issue forth a practical decree: David doth, Psalms 73:28, ‘It is good for me to draw near to God.’

Object. There is one doubt in the text which must be cleared before we go further, and that ariseth from the phrase used, ‘draw nigh to God,’ as if it were in our own power. The old Pelagians abused this place; and the Rhemists in their notes say, that free-will and man’s own endeavour is necessary in coming to God, and that man is a cause of making himself clean, though God’s grace be the principal. Usually two things have been built upon this place:—(1.) That the beginning of conversion is in man’s power; (2.) That this beginning doth merit or increase further grace from God; for, say they, God will not draw near to man ere he do first draw near to him; therefore, before special grace the beginning of conversion must be in man, and upon this beginning God will come in.

Sol. I answer—(1.) This place and the like showeth not what man will do, but what he ought to do. We left God ere he left us; therefore, we should be first in returning, as we were first in forsaking: the wronged party may in justice tarry for our submission; but yet, such is the Lord’s kindness, that he loveth us first, 1 John 4:19. (2.) Precepts to duty are not measures of strength: there is no good argument a mandato ad effectum, from what ought to be done to what can or shall be done. These things are expressed thus for another purpose: to show God’s right, to convince the creature of weakness, to show us our duty, that man’s endeavour is required, and that we should do our utmost, to convince us wherein we have failed, &c. (3.) These precepts are not useless; to the elect they convey grace. God fulfilleth what he commandeth: evangelical commands carry their own blessing with them; for, by the co-working of the Spirit, by this means they are stirred up and made to draw near to God. Towards others they are convincing, and show us our obstinacy and contumacy; we will not come to God, and lie at the foot of his sovereignty, saying, Lord, thou hast said, Turn to me, and I will turn to you: ‘Turn us and we shall be turned; draw us and we shall draw near to thee,’ Jeremiah 31:18. Men pretend cannot; the truth is they will not come, hungry to the table, thirsty to the fountain; they will not lie at God’s feet for grace: so that those precepts convince the reprobate, and leave them without excuse. I shall conclude all with that sweet saying of Bernard, Nemo te quœrere potest, nisi qui prius invenerit; vis igitur inveniri ut quœraris, quœri ut inveniaris; potes quidem inveniri, non tamen prœveniri—none can be aforehand with God; we cannot seek him till we have found him; he will be sought that he may be found, and found that he may be sought: it is grace that must bring us to grace; and the stray sheep cannot be brought home unless it be upon Christ’s shoulders.

2. Secondly, The next consideration of the words is, as they respect Christians already converted and called; and so the sense is, draw more near to God every day in a holy communion, and you shall have more grace from him. The note is:—

Obs. That gracious hearts should always be renewing their accesses to God by Christ. So 1 Peter 2:5, ‘Coming to Christ as a living stone;’ always coming to him in every duty, in every want. This maintaineth and increaseth grace, and maketh your lives sweet and comfortable, Drawing nigh to God is not the duty of an hour, or in season only at first conversion, but the work of our whole lives. And he will draw nigh to you; that is, he will make us find that he is near to us by his favour and blessing. You have the like promise, Zechariah 1:3, ‘Turn unto me, and I will turn unto you.’ So Malachi 3:7, ‘Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.’

Obs. 1. Observe, that the way to have God to turn to us in mercy, is to turn to him in duty. This is the standing law of heaven; God will not vary from it; it is the best way for God’s glory, and for the creatures’ good. Mercies are most sweet and good to us when we are prepared for them by duty. Do not divide then between mercy and duty. Expectations in God’s way cannot be disappointed. The prophet saith, Hosea 10:11, ‘Ephraim is an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn,’ but not to break the clods. The mouth of the beast that treadeth out the corn was not to be muzzled; in that work they had plenty of food. The meaning—Ephraim would have blessings, but could not endure the yoke of obedience. We are apt to lie upon the bed of ease, and securely look what God will do, but do not stir up ourselves to what we should do.

Obs. 2. God will be near those that are careful to hold communion with him. See Psalms 145:18, ‘The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.’ Nigh to bless, to comfort, to quicken, to guide, to support them. Let it encourage us to come to God, yea, to run to him; we are sure to speed. The father ran to meet the returning prodigal, Luke 15:18. He will prevent us with loving-kindness: ‘When they call I will answer, when they cry I will say, Here am I,’ Isaiah 58:9. What have you to say to me? what would you have from me? Here am I to satisfy all your desires. Nay, elsewhere it is said, Isaiah 65:24, ‘Before they call, I will answer,’ &c. When they do address themselves to seek God, he is nigh to counsel, to quicken, to enlighten, to defend; ready with blessing ere your imperfect desires can be formed into a request. So Psalms 32:5 ‘I said, I will confess, and thou forgavest,’ &c. As soon as David had but conceived a repenting purpose, he felt the comfort of a pardon.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, &c. From the connection of this precept with the former you may observe:—

Obs. That unclean persons can have no commerce with God. You must be holy ere you can draw nigh to him; conformity is the ground of communion: Matthew 6:9, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ So Joshua 24:19, ‘You cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God,’ &c. Without holiness God cannot endure our presence; he ‘will not take the wicked by the hand,’ Job 8:20. And we cannot endure his presence: ‘The sinners in Zion will be afraid,’ Isaiah 33:14. Well, then, when you would have free converse with God, come with a holy heart; there is special purgation required before worship. The Israelites were to wash themselves when they heard the law, Exodus 19:1-25. And David saith, Psalms 26:6, ‘I will wash mine hands in innocency: and so compass thine altar, Lord,’ He hath respect to the solemn washing, which God had appointed for such as came to the altar, Exodus 40:1-38. Again, if you would have sweet converse with God in your ways, walk holily; the Spirit of God loveth to dwell cleanly. See Psalms 24:3-4, ‘He that hath clean hands, and an holy heart, shall stand in his holy hill.’ Generally it was the custom of the eastern countries to wash before worship. The very heathen gods would be served in white, the emblem of purity.

Cleanse your hands.—It noteth good works; as pureness of heart implieth faith and holy affections. Thus it is often taken in scripture, as Job 17:9, ‘The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that is of pure hands shall grow stronger and stronger.’ Therefore washing the hands was a sign of innocency, as Pilate did in the matter of Christ. Thus the apostle Paul biddeth us, 1 Timothy 2:8, to ‘lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting.’ So God telleth the Israelites, Isaiah 1:15-16, ‘Your hands are full of blood; wash you, make you clean,’ &c. When we come to empty the fountain of goodness, we must not do it with impure hands. The hands in all these places are put synecdochically for the whole body, and all the external organs of the soul, because they are principally employed in the accomplishing of many sins, as in bribes, rapine, lust, fights, &c.

Obs. Observe, that the Lord hath required not only holy hearts, but holy hands. The goodness of your hearts must appear in the integrity of your conversations. When men’s actions are naught, they pretend their hearts are good. Is there no evil in the hand? The heart must be pure and the way undefiled, that we may neither incur blame from within nor shame from without; and when sin is once committed, the hand must be cleansed as well as the heart. It is in vain to pretend repentance and washing the heart, when the hand is full of bribes or ill-gotten goods, and no restitution is made.

Ye sinners.—In this first clause he speaketh to men openly vicious, such as were tainted with the guilt of outward and manifest sins; so the word sinners is used in this place, as elsewhere, where it is put in definitely. So John 9:31, ‘The Lord heareth not sinners;’ that is, men of a corrupt life. So Mary Magdalene is called ‘a sinner,’⁶ Luke 7:37, that is, openly profane. So, ‘He eateth and drinketh with sinners,’ Matthew 11:19, and Luke 15:2. Now the chief work of open sinners is to cleanse the hands, or reform the life, that by such representations they may be beaten off from the fond presumption of a good heart whilst the life is scandalous.

⁶ The belief that the ‘woman which was a sinner’ was Mary Magdalene seems to have been entertained by all the English writers of the seventeenth century. ED.

Purify your hearts.—He speaketh this, partly because in this latter clause he dealeth with hypocrites, whose life is plausible enough, their main care should be about their hearts; partly because all cometh out of the heart.

Obs. Observe, if you would have a holy life, you must get a clean heart. True conversion beginneth there; spiritual life, as well as natural, is first in the heart. See 1 Peter 2:11-12, ‘Abstain from fleshly lusts . . . having your conversations honest.’ First mortify the lusts, then the deeds of the body of sin. If you would cure the disease, purge away the sick matter, not only stop the flux of the humours; lest sin return again, cast salt into the spring: Isaiah 55:7, ‘Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,’ &c. Mark, not only his way or course of life, but his thoughts, the frame of his heart; the heart is the womb of thoughts, and thoughts are the first issues and out-goings of corruption: Matthew 15:19, ‘Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,’ &c. First the thoughts, then the practices. Well, then, they are foolish and vain men that are over-industrious about the outward man, washing the outside of cups and platters, Mark 7:1-37, altogether for dressing up a garb and pretence of religion. That which God looketh after and loveth is ‘truth in the inward parts,’ Psalms 51:6. God will easily find us out under our disguise, as the prophet did Jeroboam’s wife. Be not careful merely of honour before the people, but of your hearts before God; and let conscience be dearer to you than credit. Many are sensible of failings in the carriage, because they betray and expose us to shame; you should be as sensible of distempers in the heart; lusts must not be digested without regret and remorse, no more than sins.

Ye double-minded, δίψυχοι.—The word signifieth ‘of two hearts,’ or ‘two souls.’ An hypocrite hath ‘an heart and an heart,’ which is odious to God; they halt between God and Baal, and deny the religion which they profess; their thoughts are divided, and their affections hover always in a doubtful suspense between God and the world. See the notes on James 1:8.