become the means of generating patience; yea, those tribulations, which in the obstinate can produce
nothing but indignation and clamorous discontent.
4.Patience, probation, etc. James, adopting a similar gradation, seems to follow a different
order; for he says, that patience proceeds from probation: but the different meaning of the word is
what will reconcile both. Paul takes probation for the experience which the faithful have of the sure
protection of God, when by relying on his aid they overcome all difficulties, even when they
experience, whilst in patiently enduring they stand firm, how much avails the power of the Lord,
which he has promised to be always present with his people. James takes the same word for
tribulation itself, according to the common usage of Scripture; for by these God proves and tries
his servants: and they are often called trials.^155
According then to the present passage, we then only make advances in patience as we ought,
when we regard it as having been continued to us by God’s power, and thus entertain hope as to
the future, that God’s favor, which has ever succored us in our necessities, will never be wanting
to us. Hence he subjoins, that from probation arises hope; for ungrateful we should be for benefits
received, except the recollection of them confirms our hope as to what is to come.
5.Hope maketh not ashamed,etc.;^156 that is, it regards salvation as most certain. It hence
appears, that the Lord tries us by adversities for this end, — that our salvation may thereby be
gradually advanced. Those evils then cannot render us miserable, which do in a manner promote
our happiness. And thus is proved what he had said, that the godly have reasons for glorying in the
midst of their afflictions.
For the love of God, etc. I do not refer this only to the last sentence, but to the whole of the
preceding passage. I therefore would say, — that by tribulations we are stimulated to patience, and
that patience finds an experiment of divine help, by which we are more encouraged to entertain
hope; for however we may be pressed and seem to be nearly consumed, we do not yet cease to feel
God’s favor towards us, which affords the richest consolation, and much more abundant than when
all things happen prosperously. For as that happiness, which is so in appearance, is misery itself,
when God is adverse to and displeased with us; so when he is propitious, even calamities themselves
will surely be turned to a prosperous and a joyful issue. Seeing all things must serve the will of the
Creator, who, according to his paternal favor towards us, (as Paul declares in the eighth chapter,)
overrules all the trials of the cross for our salvation, this knowledge of divine love towards us is
instilled into our hearts to the Spirit of God; for the good things which God has prepared for his
servants are hid from the ears and the eyes and the minds of men, and the Spirit alone is he who
can reveal them. And the word diffused, is very emphatical; for it means that the revelation of divine
(^155) The word in James is μ while here it is μ . The first means a test, or the act of testing — trial; and the second, the
result of testing — experience, and is rendered in our version “proof,” 2 Corinthians 2:9, — “experiment,” 2 Corinthians 9:13,
— and in 2 Corinthians 8:2, “trial,” which ought to be experience. Beza says, that the first bears to the second a similar relation
as cause bears to effect: the one thing is testing or probation, and the other is the experience that is thereby gained.
The word is rendered here, not very intelligibly, “approbation,” both by Macknight and Stuart; but more correctly,
“experience,” by Beza and Doddridge. — Ed.
(^156) Chalmers observes, that there are two hopes mentioned in this passage, — the hope of faith in the second verse, and the
hope of experience in this. “The hope of the fourth verse,” he says, “is distinct from and posterior to the hope of the second; and
it also appears to be derived from another source. The first hope is hope in believing, a hope which hangs direct on the testimony
of God...The second hope is grounded on distinct considerations — not upon what the believer sees to be in the testimony of
God, but upon what he finds to be in himself. — It is the fruit not of faith, but of experience; and is gathered not from the word
that is without, but from the feeling of what passes within.” — Ed.