over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us:

2 Looking on JESUS the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself: that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds.

4 For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin

5 And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to as unto children, saying: My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord: neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him.

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth: and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct f

8 But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers; then are you bastards, and not sons.

9 Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh, for instructors, and we reverenced them shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live!

10 And they indeed for a few days according to their own pleasure instructed us: but he,

a Rom. 6. 4. Ephes. 4. 22. Col. 3. 8. 1 Pet. 2. 1, and 4. 2.-b Prov. 3. 11. Apoc. 3. 19.

for our profit, that we might re ceive his sanctification.

11 Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice.

12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees:

13 And make straight steps with your feet: that no one, halting, may go out of the way; but rather be healed.

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness: holiness without which no man shall see God:

15 Looking diligently lest any man be wanting to the grace of God: lest any root of bitterness springing up do hinder, and by it many be defiled.

16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, das Esau who for one mess sold his first birth-right.

17 For know ye that afterwards when he desired to inherit the benediction, he was rejected for he found no plac of repentance, although with tears he had sought it.

18 For you are not come to a mountain that might be touched, and a burning fire, and a whirlwind, and darkness, and storm,

19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words,

c Rom. 12. 18.-d Gen. 25. 33.-e Gen. 27. 38. f Exod. 19. 12. and 20. 21.

CHAP. XII. Ver. 17. He found, &c. That is, he found no way to bring his father to repent, or change his mind, with relation to his having given the blessing to his younger brother Jacob.

which they that luard excused themselves, that the word might not be spoken to them:

20 For they did not endure that which was said: And if so much as a beast shall touch the mount, it shall be stoned.

21 And so terrible was that

which was seen, Moses said: I am frighted and tremble.

22 But you are come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels, 23 And to the church of the first-born, who are written in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect,

24 And to JESUS the mediator of the new testament, and to the sprinkling of blood which speaketh better than that of

Abel.

25 See that you refuse him not that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke upon earth, much more shall not we, that turn away from him that speaketh to us from heaven.

26 Whose vo.ce then moved the earth: our now he promiseth, saying: "Yet once more, and I will move not only the earth, but heaven also.

27 And in that he saith, Yet once more, he signifieth the translation of the moveable things as made, that those things may remain which are immoveable.

28 Therefore receiving an immoveable kingdom, we have grace whereby let us serve. pleasing God, with fear and

reverence.

e Exed. 19 13.—6 Aggeus 2. 7.

29. For our God is a con

suming fire.

LE

CHAP. XIII.

Divers admonitions and exhortations. ET the charity of the brotherhood abide in you. forget, for by this some, being 2 And hospitality do not d

'not aware of it, have entertained angels.

3 Remember them that are

in bands, as if you were bound with them; and them that labour, as being yourselves also in the body.

4 Marriage honourable in all, fornicators and adulterers God and the bed undefiled. For will judge.

5 Let your manners be without covetousness, contented For he hath said: I will not with such things as you have: leave thee, neither will I forsake

thee.

6 So that we may confidently say: The Lord is my helper: I will not fear what man shall do

to me.

7 Remember your prelates who have spoken the word of

c Deut. 4. 24.-d Rom. 12. 13. 1 Pet, 4. 9.-e Gen. 18. 3. and 19. 2.-f Jos. 2. 5-g Ps. 117. 6.

CHAP. XIII. Ver. 4. Or, let marriage be honourable in all. That is, in all things belonging to the marriage state. This is a warning to married people, not to abuse the sanctity of their state, by any liberties or irregu larities contrary thereunto. Now it does not follow from this text that all persons are obliged to marry, even if the word omnibus were rendered, in all persons, instead of in all things: for, if it was a precept, St. Paul him. self would have transgressed it, as he never married. Moreover, those who have already made a vow to God to lead a single life, should they attempt to marry, they would incur their own damnation. 1 Tim. v. 12.

CHAP. I.

The benefit of tribulations. Prayer with fai. God is the author of all good, but not of evil. We must be slow to anger: and not hearers only, but doers of the word. Of bridling the tongue; and of pure religion.

JA AMES the servant of God, and of our Lord JESUS Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

2 My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations:

3. Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 And patience hath a perfect work: that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.

5 But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who

a Rom. 5. 3.

CHAP. I. Ver. 2. Into divers temp tations. The word temptation, in this epistle, is sometimes taken for trials by afflictions or persecutions, as in this place; at other times, it is to be understood: tempting, enticing or drawing offers into sin.

giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not: and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the

sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind.

7 Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any. thing of the Lord.

8 A double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways.

9 But let the brother of low condition glory in his exaltation:

10 And the rich, in his being low, because as the flower of the grass shall he pass away.

11 For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof. fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also

b Matt. 7. 7. and 21,22. Mark 11. 24. Luke 11. 9. John 14. 13. and 16.e Eccli. 14. 18. Isaias 40. 6. 1 Pet 1. 24,

in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: For when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him.

13 Let no man when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not a tempter of evils, and he tempteth no man.

14 But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured.

15 Then when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. But sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.

16 Do not err therefore, my dearest brethren.

17. Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration.

18 For of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature.

19 You know, my dearest

brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger.

20 For the anger of man, worketh not the justice of God, 21 Wherefore casting away all uncleanness, and abundance of naughtiness, with meekness receive the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls.

22 But be ye doers of the

deceiving your own selves.

23 For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer: he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass.

24 For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was.

25 But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

27 Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's-self unspotted from this world.

7. 21. and 24.

Rom. 2. 13.

Ver. 18. Some beginning:

kind of first-fruits of his Cr

is,

spiritual functions in God's church, there should be no respect of persons: but that the souls of the poor should be as much regarded as those of the rich. See Deut. i 17.