PASSAGE IN ST. JAMES.
(Vol. vii., p. 549)
On referring to the passage cited by S. S. S. in Bishop Taylor's Holy Dying, vol. iv. p. 345. (Heber's edit.), I find I had marked two passages in St. James's Epistle as being those to which, in all probability, the bishop alluded; one in the first chapter, and one in the third. In the commencement of his Epistle St. James exhorts his hearers to exercise patience in all the worldly accidents that might befal them; to resign themselves into God's hands, and accept in faith whatever might happen. He then proceeds:
"If any of you lack wisdom" (prudentia ad dijudicandum quid in singulis circumstantiis agendum sit—Grotius), "let him ask of God" (postulet ab eo, qui dat, nempe Deo: ut intelligas non aliunde petendum sapientiam.—Erasmus).
Again, in chap. iii. 13., he asks:
"Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you" (ἐπιστήμων, i. e. sciens, sive scientià præditus, quod recentiores vocant scientificus.—Erasmus).
He bids him prove his wisdom by submission to the truth; for that cunning craftiness which manifests itself only in generating heresies and contentions, is—
"Not from above," ἀλλ' ἐπίγειος, Ψυχικὴ (animalis,—ista sapientia a natura est, non a Deo) δαιμονιώδης.—Vid. Eph. ii. 2., and 2 Cor. iv. 4.
These passages would naturally afford ample scope for the exuberant fancy of ancient commentators; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that Bishop Taylor may have had the remarks of one of these writers running in his mind, when he quoted St. James as reprobating, with such minuteness of detail, the folly of consulting oracles, spirits, sorcerers, and the like.
I have not, at present, access to any of the commentators to whom I allude; so I am unable to confirm this suggestion.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
There is no uncanonical epistle attributed to this apostle, although the one received by the English from the Greek and Latin churches was pronounced uncanonical by Luther. The passage to which Jeremy Taylor refers, is iv. 13, 14., which he interpreted as referring to an unlawful inquiry into the future:
"Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow: for what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."
Hug (Wait's Trans., vol. ii. p. 579.) considers the apostle as reproving the Jews for attempting to evade the national punishment threatened them, by removing out of their own country of Judæa. Probably, however, neither Taylor nor Hug are correct in departing from the more obvious signification, which refers to the mercantile character of the twelve tribes (i. 1.), arising mainly out of the fact of their captivities and dispersions (διασπορᾷ). The practice is still common in the East for merchants on a large and small scale to spend a whole season or year in trafficking in one city, and passing thence to another with the varied products suitable respectively to each city; and such products were interchanged without that extreme division of labour or despatch which the magnitude of modern commerce requires. The whole passage, from James iv. 13. to v. 6. inclusive, must be taken as specially applicable to the sins of mercantile men whose works of righteousness St. James (iii. 17-20.) declared to be wanting, in proof of their holding the faith necessary,
according, to St. Paul (Rom. iii. 27.), for their salvation.
T. J. Buckton.
Birmingham.