The Marginal Notes of the Popish Testament Translated Into English, Book 20
IAMES.
Iam. 1. 14.
The text.
For ⸫ euerie one is tempted of his owne concupiscence, abstracted and allured.
The note.
The ground of temptation to sinne is our concupiscence, & not God.
The answer.
Tentations are either outward or inward. Tentations outward are afflictions, wherebie God is woont to trie and prooue men, as gold and siluer is tried in the fire. Tentations inward whereof Iames speaketh in this place, are inordinate desires prouoking & soliciting vsus to sinne, but bicause men who receiue corruption from Adam, are prone and readie to do as Adam did, that is, to lay their faults frō them selues to God, therfore Iames earnestlie admonisheth them to looke into them selues, and there to espie and sée the roote and matter of all corruption.
Iam. 1. 25.
The text.
But he that hath looked into the law of perfect libertie, and hath remained in it, not made a forgetfull hearer but a doer of the worke, this man shalbe ⸫ blessed in his deede.
The note.
Beatitude or saluation consisteth in well working.
The answer.
Weldoers or workers are blessed and saued, and yet notwithstanding beatitude & saluation doth not consist in our weldoing, but in the merciemercy & goodnes of God bestowed vponupon vsus in Christ. Therefore it is to be obserued that in this place Iames maketh a comparison betwéene hearers of the word, whereof one sort are negligent & forgetfull, & therefore neuer the better for the things they heare. The other sort are diligent, and commit to memorie, and put in practise in life the thing they learned by hearing, these latter so doing and not the former, shew them selues to be blessed and saued. For Christ preached is their saluation, their workes do testifie their faith, whereby they hauehave laied hold on Christ their righteousnes, as fruits do witnes the goodnes of a trée.
Iames. …. 20.
The text.
But wilt thou know ⸫ ô vaine man that faith without works is idle?
The note.
Ile speaketh to all heretikes that say, Faith onelyonly without works doth iustifie, calling them vaine men.
The answer.
You shew your delight, you séeke to deceiue your selues and others by equiuocations. For you know well ynough, that faith is not taken héere for a true and a liuely faith, which worketh by louelove, as Paul and we take it, when we speake of iustifieng by faith. Secondly, you know also, that we make no account of anie such faith as is idle, or separated from louelove. Thirdly, you know that saint Iames taketh not héere iustifieng, for being made iust, but for being declared and shewed to be iust: as appéereth by the example of Abraham which he bringeth. For God first made him iust, and afterward he was declared and shewed so to be, by that most excellent example of obedience, in offering his sonne Isaac. There is therfore no contrarietie betwixt vsus and Iames, though you go about to prooue that by sound of words, which by sound or iust meaning you cannot effect and bring to passe.
…. 3. 15.
The text.
But if you hauehave bitter zeale, and there be contentions in your harts: glorie not, and be not liers against the truth: for this is not ⸫ wisdome descending from aboue, but earthly, sensuall, diuelish.
The note.
The difference betwixt the humane wisedome specially of heretikes, and the wisedome of the catholike church and hir children.
The answer.
If a man compare the fruits of heauenly wisedome, with the fruits of the wisedome of your church, he shall find them as contrarie as white is to blacke. All stories testifie, that your church hath béene the author of most of the wars and contentions in Christendome these thrée hundred yéeres, and vpwards. Your bookes in praise of Sodomitri…, your curtesans maintained in the eies and bosome of your most holy father, and the beastly life of your priests, testifie the chastitie of your church. The merciemercy of your church the massacres of France, and the Marian storme in England not yet forgotten, do sufficiently shew. I might go thorough the rest: but peace, chastitie, and merciemercy wanting amongst you, doth sufficiently shew your wisedome to be earthly, sensuall, and diuelish.
Iames. 4. 6.
The text.
And ⸫ giueth greater grace: for the which cause it saith, God resisteth the proud, and giueth grace to the humble.
The note.
The boldnes of heretikes adding heere the word scripture to the text thus: And the scripture giueth greater grace.
The answer.
The blindnes of you papists, which thinke it a boldnes to set the nominatiue case before the verbe. I pray you tell vsus what it is that (as saint Iames héere saith) giueth greater grace, if it be not the scripture? But the place is plain, the words afore, and the words following do inforce, that the word scripture must be supplied: but there is none other cause of your wrangling in this, but that you would hauehave eueryevery thing left as obscure and darke, as might be possible, to fray poore men from studieng that which they cannot vnderstand.
Iames. 4. 8.
The text.
⸫ Approch to God, and he will approch to you.
The note.
Free will and mans owne endeuor necessarie in comming to God.
The answer.
Why do you not plainly say, that we must preuent and go before the grace of God by our will and our endeuor, bicause Iames setteth our approching first? That we know to be your meaning, for that your sophisters commonly contend for. But to answer you shortly, we are commonly and vsually by the spirit of God exhorted to that, which God must worke in vsus, therefore frée will is not prooued by those exhortations.
Iames. 4. 11.
The text.
⸫ Detract not one from another my brethren.
The note.
He forbiddeth detraction, euill speaking and slandering.
The answer.
Uices, wherein you set a great péece of your delight, as in your annotations most manifestly doth appéere.
Iames. 4. 15.
The text.
For that you should say, ⸫ If our Lord will, and if we shal liue, we will do this or that.
The note.
All promises and purposes of our worldly affaires are to be made vnderunder condition of Gods good liking and pleasure, and it becommeth a Christian man to hauehave vsually this forme of speech in that case: If God will: If God otherwise dispose not.
The answer.
If this note had come from Rome, as it doth from Rhemes: from Italie, as it doth from France, we should hauehave woondered how they teach others that, which they hauehave not learned themselues. It may be you know the common Italian prouerbe, In despite of God. And this I know, that neither this good counsell of Iames was vsed in time of poperie, and when in the time of the Gospell men began to leaue former corruptions, and reformed their spéeches according to this rule, the papists scorned at it, and derided it, as too much holines.
Iames. 5. 1.
The text.
Go to now ye rich men, weepe, ⸫ howling in your miseries which shall come to you.
The note.
A fearfull description of the miseries that shall befall in the next life to the vnmercifull couetous men.
The answer.
But your religion giueth them hart of grace to contemne all threats: for your father the pope will sell them heauen for mony.
…ames. 5. 7.
The text.
Behold the husbandman expecteth the pretious fruit of the earth: patiently bearing till he receiue ⸫ the timely and the lateward.
The note.
He meaneth either fruit or raine.
The answer.
It is an Hebraisme, and therefore better expounded of raine than of fruit, bicause the phrase is vsuall in the Hebrew, and so vsually signifieth.
Iames. 5. 10.
The text.
⸫ Confesse therefore your sinnes one to another: and pray one for another that you may be saued.
The note.
The heretikes translate, Acknowledge your sinne, &c. So little they can abide the very word of confession.
The answer.
Héere is a knot sought in a rush. To acknowledge, and to confesse in English eares is all one. That we cannot abide the word of confession is one of your impudent and shamelesse slanders, from the which the vsuall and common vsing of it in our translations do sufficiently cléere vsus.
Iames. …. 20.
The text.
My brethren, if any of you shall erre from the truth, and a man conuert him, he must know that he that maketh a sinner to be conuerted from the error of his way, shall saue his soule from death, and ⸫ couereth a multitude of sinnes.
The note.
He that hath the zeale of conuerting sinners, procureth heerby merciemercy and remission to himselfe, which is a singular grace.
The answer.
You dreame still of mans procuring merciemercy and remission to himselfe by his owne works: but S. Iames hath no such thing, but onelyonly this, that the soule of the conuerted man is saued, and his sinnes couered, that is to say, abolished.